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SPEAKERS  | 

HAND  BOOK 

World  Program  | 


Issued  by  the  National  Speakers  Bureau 
of  the  Young  Womens  Christian  Associations 

600  Lexington  A ve.  | 

New  York  City  | 

1919  I 

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INTRODUCTION 

The  daily  issues  of  life,  which  are  topics  for  conver- 
sation in  every  home  in  the  United  States  and  call  for 
headlines  and  editorials  rewritten  in  many  languages, 
would  have  a most  familiar  sound  to  millions  living  in 
i the  Far  and  Near  East  and  Latin  America.  We  have  no 
corner  on  labor  unrest,  the  high  cost  of  living,  shortness 
of  production,  clevage  in  society,  the  new  position  of 
woman  and  a questioning  of  the  old  faiths  and  practices. 
Have  you  noticed  the  change  of  front  on  the  part  of  the 
newspapers  large  and  small,  the  space  given  to  the  Ori- 
ent, to  happenings  thousands  of  miles  away,  formerly 
discussed  with  a four-line  paragraph  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sheet  that  needed  filling? 

The  great  questions  now  demanding  understanding 
or  solution  in  the  United  States  are  but  a part  of  a world 
problem  and  it  is  as  impossible  to  answer  them  to  the 
satisfaction  of  ten  million  people  without  regard  to  the 
other  people  living  outside  our  borders  as  it  is  for  a doc- 
tor to  treat  one  part  of  a body  suffering  from  blood  poi- 
son, saying  “If  this  sore  is  only  healed,  all  will  be  well.” 
This  has  been  the  policy  of  many  a thinking  man  and 
women  and  perhaps  to  a marked  degree  in  our  ccountry 
because  of  its  isolations,  and  to-day  there  are  no  spaces 
of  separation  and  we  are  feeling  for  the  first  time  with 
the  world. 

The  United  States  of  America  is  neither  by  qualities 
nor  accomplishments  in  a position  to  save  the  world  any 
more  than  our  men  won  the  war.  They  added  their 
fresh  strength,  their  supplies,  their  experience  and  the 
end  came.  But  there  are  contributions  we  can  make  to 
weary,  seeking  world  that  will  turn  the  tide,  not  but  that 
others  could  do  it  were  not  their  strength  depleted,  and 
in  the  years  until  they  recover  their  full  powers,  ours  is 
an  unusual  opportunity  and  responsibility.  It  is  the  con- 
tributing of  the  experience  along  the  lines  of  Christian 
service  we  have  been  favored  in  being  able  to  try. 

i 


1 housands  of  women  and  children  under  twelve  are 
working  in  the  factories  of  China  with  no  labor  laws  for 
protection.  Thousands  of  women  in  India  are  working 
outside  of  their  home  with  no  more  outlook  upon  life 
than  the  machine  they  operate;  still  other  thousands  are 
working  under  most  undesirable  conditions  in  Japan. 
Thousands  of  women  in  South  America  are  making 
roads  and  acting  as  beasts  of  burden.  Shall  it  be  years 
and  years  before  conditions  are  changed,  or  are  we 
willing  to  produce  and  send  sufficient  trained  leader- 
ship to  show  strong  women  in  these  countries  the  way 
as  far  as  we  have  gone?  To  be  of  much  value,  such 
help  must  go  now. 

Students  are  always  a factor  to  be  reckoned  with, 
mostly  in  future  possibilities,  but  in  the  past  days  Euro- 
pean students  have  given  of  their  best  and  many  in 
North  America  as  opportunity  came,  and  to-day  the 
youngest  republic,  numbering  four  millions  of  people 
is  following  the  leadership  of  its  student  body  in  de- 
manding reforms  from  the  government.  Similiar  move- 
ments in  Japan  and  India  are  showing  much  power. 
The  religion  we  hold  dear  is  the  only  one  which  will 
give  the  moral  stamina  which  these  leaders  must  have, 
or  disaster  will  be  the  result  of  finding  their  strength. 

Whatever  the  movement  may  be  called  is  of  little 
moment.  The  thinking  world  is  realizing  that  woman’s 
power  is  being  exerted  along  new  lines.  Think  of  an 
Oriental  man  in  a public  address  last  summer,  saying, 
“We  realize  that  no  nation  rises  above  its  womanhood.’’ 
We  have  a message  out  of  a few  years  of  experience 
to  the  home  woman  whose  life  is  made  deadly  monoton- 
ous by  wealth  or  the  lack  of  it.  Shall  we  pass  it  on  ? 

Beginnings  of  world  peace  may  be  made  by  a Paris 
conference,  but  the  continuation  and  fruition  of  such 
idealism  is  only  possible  if  the  proper  foundations  are 
laid.  Appreciation  and  understanding  which  shall 
grow  into  love  and  such  come  only  when  a sufficient 

2 


leadership  of  a country  are  shaping  their  lives  and  the 
policies  of  their  communities  upon  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  this  is  the  task  that  is  upon  our  shoulders 
to-day — to  take  His  winning  all  comprehending  life 
to  those  in  other  lands  and  in  our  own,  who  this  day 
are  making  for  the  weal  or  woe  of  the  future. 

There  can  be  no  national  thinking  except  as  its  leads 
to  International  thinking.  There  can  be  no  limited  liv- 
ing unless  its  intensiveness  leads  into  an  expression  of 
world  service.  Dare  we  withhold  this  knowledge  from 
those  in  our  membership  who  have  not  thought  it 
through? 

Katherine  Willard  Eddy.  Sept.,  1919. 


3 


WORLD  CITIZENSHIP 

“The  stage  is  set,  the  destiny  disclosed.  It  has  come 
about  by  no  plan  of  our  conceiving,  but  by  the  hand  of 
God,  who  led  us  into  this  war.  We  cannot  turn  back. 
We  can  only  go  forward,  with  lifted  eyes  and  fresh- 
ened spirit  to  follow  the  vision.  It  was  of  this  that  we 
dreamed  at  our  birth.  America  shall  in  truth  show  the 
way.  The  light  streams  upon  the  path  ahead  and  no- 
where else.” 

From  President  Wilsons  speech  in  presenting  the 
the  Peace  Treaty  and  the  League  of  Nations  to 
the  Senate. 

“The  Nineteenth  Century  made  the  World  a Neigh- 
borhood; the  Twentieth  Century  is  making  the  World 
a Brotherhood.” 

“200,000,000  people  in  Asia  and  Africa  go  to  bed 
hungry  every  night.” 

“Only  Christianity  can  meet  human  need.  All  other 
religions  are  man-made,  and  their  inadequacy  lies  in 
the  fact  that  they  can  lift  man  no  higher  than  man’s 
own  head.” 

“To  further  the  movement  for  better  living  condi- 
tions through  the  use  of  facts  already  ascertained,  the 
Association  is  calling  a conference  in  September  of 
women  physicians  from  Europe,  the  Americas  and  the 
Orient.” 

From  the  Association  Monthly,  August,  IQIQ. 

“What  we  need  is  friends,  who  will  come  out  and 
settle  among  us,  learn  our  language,  study  our  condi- 
tions, and  then  teach  us  to  lead  our  own  people.” 

A Christian  Woman  in  India. 


4 


THE  YOUTH  OF  TO-DAY  MUST  BE  THE 
BRIDGE  BUILDERS 

In  the  annals  of  oriental  folklore  there  is  a quaint 
story  of  the  man  who  built  the  road.  The  hills  and  val- 
leys were  pleasant  with  patches  of  plush  green.  The 
lord  of  the  land  looked  out  over  the  softly  waving  fields 
and  said,  “It  is  a good  year  for  rice.  I will  repair  the 
roads  and  where  necessary  I will  ^build  new  ones. 
Moreover  I will  ask  our  neighbors  to  look  to  the  mend- 
ing of  their  ways.” 

So  the  farmers  finally  harvested  the  rice  and  said, 
“To-morrow  we  shall  carry  our  grain  to  market.  That 
night  the  rains  began  to  fall.  The  mountain  rivulets 
become  roaring  torrents.  The  men,  however,  were 
unafraid  and  set  out  along  the  excellent  road.  They 
came  to  the  river,  and  across  its  swirling  current  they 
could  see  the  fine  road  stretching  on.  There  was  no 
bridge;  so  the  disappointed  men  were  obliged  to  turn 
back,  their  own  labor  and  the  labor  of  their  lord  having 
been  in  vain. 

Such  is  the  destiny  of  every  country  that  does  not 
build  bridges. 

Bishop  Greer  in  one  of  his  sermons  demanding  100 
per  cent,  patriotism  and  sacrifice,  said: 

“America  is  boastful  of  her  material  power  and  has 
made  wealth  her  god.  We  always  supposed  that  sheer 
material  power  expressed  rulership.  To-day  the  scales 
fall  from  our  eyes  and  we  see  her  material  power  in  this 
land  is  not  all.  We  see  the  real  purpose  of  our  wealth 
and  that  we  must  have  more  to  give  in  sacrifice  and  ser- 
vice. We  are  beginning  to  realize  that  the  priceless 
jewel  of  American  life  is  service  to  our  country  and 
the  rest  of  mankind.” 

New  York  Times,  May  2,  IQIQ. 

5 


SEEN  BY  MISS  SCOTT  IN  JAPAN 

Sept.  9,  1919. 

“In  one  factory  alone  which  I myself  visited  there 
are  3,700  girls — think  of  it!  as  many  girls  as  would 
make  up  a good-sized  little  town — and  there  are  scores 
and  hundreds  of  factories  in  Osaka,  many  small,  not  a 
few  very  large.  I wish  that  I had  the  power  to  bring 
before  your  eyes  the  girls  that  I saw — rows  and  rows 
and  rows  of  them  at  machines,  many  of  them  looking  to 
be  mere  babies,  although  the  Japanese  law  requires 
that  they  shall  be  twelve  years  old,  which,  as  we  count 
age,  would  be  about  ten.  Pathetic  little  figures  with 
dull  hopeless-looking  faces  and  such  tiny,  tiny  bodies. 
I am  not  a woman  given  to  easy  tears,  but  I went 
through  that  factory  with  a lump  in  my  throat  that 
felt  like  a football.  Most  of  them  live  in  dormitories 
within  the  factory  enclosure,  and  after  their  twelve 
hours’  work,  are  received  into  its  dubious  comfort  to 
sleep  a few  hours,  walk  about  the  enclosure  a bit,  and 
then  go  back  to  work  once  more.  It  is  true  that  the 
dormitories  I saw  (and  I visited  several)  were  clean 
and  well  kept  and  probably  far  better  than  the  girls 
would  have  at  home.  It  is  also  true  that  industrial  work 
anywhere  under  any  conditions  means  pretty  drab  days 
for  most  girls.  Conditions  are  as  they  are  and  they 
change  slowly,  but  the  thing  which  makes  me  want  to 
cry  out  and  assail  the  very  heavens  with  my  clamor  is 
that  we  are  not  doing  anything  about  it.***  I do  not 
doubt  that  almost  any  factory  in  Osaka  would  be  open 
to  us  if  we  were  to  tap  only  ever  so  lightly  at  the  door.” 


6 


TALKING  POINTS 

The  purpose  of  this  handbook  is  to  supply  the  speak- 
ers, who  are  to  present  the  advance  program  of  the 
Foreign  Department  to  the  Association  members 
throughout  the  country,  with  accurate  information  on 
the  present  and  future  program  of  the  Young  Wom- 
en’s Christian  Association  for  the  women  of  the  world 
with  especial  reference  to  the  needs  of  the  work  in 
China,  India,  Japan  and  South  America. 

Because  of  our  as  yet  undefined  relationships  with 
the  Inter-Church  World  Movement  and  to  the  various 
Mission  Boards,  we  can  use  as  speakers  only  those  who 
thoroughly  understand  the  situation  and  who  are  well 
informed  on  the  possible  dangers  of  inaccurate  state- 
ments. 

To  enable  you  as  a speaker  to  secure  detailed  in- 
formation on  political  and  racial  relationships,  we  in- 
clude a bibliography  which,  though  not  exhaustive, 
should  prove  of  great  value.  Also  we  are  supplying 
figures  and  material  for  charts  and  blackboard  work 
for  those  speakers  who  desire  to  use  them. 

Speaking  Points 
Building  a Speech 

In  preparing  the  speech  it  is  desirable  to 

1.  Decide  what  your  main  purpose  is  in  talking  to 
that  audience;  what  it  is  you  want  to  make  them  as 
business  women,  industrial  girls,  club  women  or  Board 
members,  do;  and  never  forget  that  purpose  during 
your  talk. 

2.  Be  accurate  in  statements  and  quotations. 

3.  Be  prepared  to  name  authorities  for  statements,  or 
to  answer  any  objections  raised  to  statements  that  you 
make. 

4.  Be  able  to  adjust  your  speech  to  suit  any  audience 
you  may  meet  in  the  Association. 


When  Speaking 

1.  Begin  with  a good  strong  opening  sentence. 

2.  Speak  slowly  and  distinctly,  trying  to  reach  the 
person  farthest  from  the  platform. 

3.  Never  go  over  your  allotted  time ; leave  your  audi- 
ence with  a hunger  to  know  more. 

4.  Finish  strong;  beware  of  an  anti-climax. 

5.  If  speaking  with  slides,  moving  pictures  or  using 
charts  for  illustrations,  talk  to  one  focus. 

6.  However  formal  or  informal  the  construction  of 
the  talk  is,  there  are  three  cardinal  virtues  which  no 
speaker  can  afford  to  neglect — TACT,  CLEARNESS, 
FORCE. 

Filling  Speaking  Engagements 

Every  speaker  on  the  Foreign  Advance  Program 
will  have  a definite  captain  to  report  back  to  and  from 
whom  she  will  receive  requests  to  speak.  Each  Speak- 
ers Bureau  will  attempt  to  find  out  all  possible  infor- 
mation in  advance  about  the  meeting  in  order  to  let 
the  speaker  know  the  type  of  audience,  the  hour  of  the 
meeting,  the  place,  etc.  We  would  suggest  the  fol- 
lowing request  slip : 


Date.  . 
Time.  . 

Name  and  address  of  person  or  organization. 

Requesting  speaker 

Answer  before 


Name  or  type  of  speaker 
Type  of  audience 


8 


Approximate 


Number 


Date 


Place 


Train  connections 


Remarks 


On  arrival,  speaker  report  to: 


9 


THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  EUROPE 
By  Victor  Hugo 

A day  will  come  when  bullets  and  bombs  shall  be  re- 
placed by  ballots,  by  the  universal  suffrages  of  the 
people,  by  the  sacred  arbitrament  of  a great  Sovereign 
Senate,  which  shall  be  to  Europe  what  the  Parliament 
is  to  England,  what  the  Diet  is  to  Germany,  what  the 
Legislative  Assembly  is  to  France.  A day  will  come 
when  a cannon  shall  be  exhibited  in  our  museums  as 
an  instrument  of  torture  is  now,  and  men  shall  marvel 
that  such  things  should  be. 

A day  will  come  when  we  shall  see  those  two  im- 
mense groups,  the  United  States  of  America  and  the 
United  States  of  Europe,  in  the  face  of  each  other,  ex- 
tending hand  to  hand  over  the  ocean,  exchanging  their 
products,  their  commerce,  their  industry,  their  art; 
their  genius  clearing  the  earth,  colonizing  deserts,  and 
ameliorating  creation  under  the  eye  of  the  Creator. 

To  you  I appeal,  French,  English,  Germans,  Rus- 
sians, Slavs,  Europeans,  Americans,  what  have  we  to 
do  to  hasten  the  coming  of  the  great  day? 

Love  one  another! 

WHAT  IS  THE  FOREIGN  ADVANCE 
PROGRAM? 

The  Foreign  Advance  Program  comes  as  the  re- 
sponse of  the  Foreign  Department  of  the  National 
Board,  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association  to  the 
challenge  of  a shaken  world.  In  the  crash  of  the  World 
War,  the  earth  has  been  shaken  from  center  to  circum- 
ference, old  civilization,  old  traditions,  old  ideals,  old 
superstitions,  old  religions,  old  relationships,  both  per- 
sonal and  national,  and  old  provincialisms,  are  crumb- 
ling. 

The  late  Hamilton  Wright  Mabie,  after  his  return 
from  the  orient,  said,  “Foreign  missions  is  the  greatest 


unifying  power  at  work  among  men.  It  is  the  only 
adequate  expression  of  that  Spiritual  Internationalism 
which  was  the  long  dream  of  the  Prophets.  It  is  de- 
fining a universal  standard  of  morals,  reaching  and 
practicing  the  gospel  of  love  which  is  silently  working 
a revolution  in  the  feelings  and  thoughts  of  men  in  race 
relations.  It  has  become  the  very  highest  statesman- 
ship.” Sometime  ago  when  relations  between  the  Am- 
erican and  Japanese  governments  were  severely 
strained,  Count  Okuma,  then  Premier  of  Japan,  who  as 
a boy  was  a pupil  of  a Christian  missionary,  said,  “How 
can  questions  of  the  character  that  have  arisen  between 
Japan  and  California  be  solved?  Personally,  I am  pro- 
foundly convinced  that  questions  of  this  kind  can  never 
be  solved  by  law  nor  by  politics,  nor  by  diplomacy.  It 
is  only  when  these  two  peoples  believe  what  Christian- 
ity taught  in  regard  to  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man,  that  they  will  be  able  to  extend 
hands  across  the  Pacific  and  work  together  for  all  that 
is  good,  and  great  and  noble.  The  only  force  that  can 
solve  such  questions  is  Christianity.”  Recently,  the 
President  of  China  proclaimed  to  his  great  people 
“that  only  Christianity  could  save  China.” 

The  Foreign  Department  of  the  National  Board  is 
fundamentally  a missionary  society.  We  cooperate  with 
and  are  in  South  American  and  the  Orient  at  the  urgent 
request  of  the  missionary  bodies  operating  in  these 
lands.  In  fact,  even  this  advance  answers  only  in  part 
the  appeals,  or  responds  to  the  unparalleled  opportun- 
ity that  confronts  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  these  throbing 
nations. 

The  unspeakable  suffering  of  the  women  and  chil- 
dren of  Europe  and  the  Near  East,  found  a sympa- 
thetic and  generous  response  in  the  hearts  of  the  wom- 
anhood of  America,  but  have  we  realized  deeply  and 
personally  that  while  there  are  hungry  people  to  be  fed 
in  Belgium,  Serbia,  and  Poland,  there  are  more  than 

ii 


thirty  million  women  and  children  in  India  who  every 
night  cry  themselves  to  sleep  in  their  hunger  while  in 
China  untold  millions  live  from  birth  to  death  on  the 
borderland  of  starvation. 

There  are  physical  as  well  as  economic  needs,  we  are 
asked  to  meet — how  our  hearts  were  stirred  during  the 
war  when  we  heard  that  five  million  men  stretched  on 
beds  of  pain  in  the  hospitals  of  our  Allies,  we  gave  with 
eagerness  time,  money  and  life  that  these  brave  lads 
might  have  the  best  in  the  gift  of  medical  care  and  skill. 
But  do  we  realize  that  there  are  today  twenty-five  mil- 
lion women  and  children  stretched  on  mats  of  pain, 
without  either  hospital,  doctor  or  nurse?  They,  too, 
gave  their  brothers,  their  husbands,  and  their  sons  by 
the  tens  of  thousands  to  help  win  the  war.  As  you  love 
and  serve  the  American  widow  who  gave  her  husband 
to  help  make  the  world  safe  for  us,  you  will  not  forget 
the  little  Indian  widow,  crushed  by  the  superstitions  of 
her  cruel  religion?  They  are  in  bondage,  physically, 
mentally,  and  spiritually.  What  an  opportunity  to 
bring  relief  through  our  health  campaigns,  the  develop- 
ment of  trained  leadership  in  our  School  of  Physical 
Directors  everywhere  in  such  urgent  demand. 

This  is  also  the  response  of  the  Foreign  Department 
to  the  challenge  of  a serving  world.  Girls  and  women 
by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  are  being  sacrificed  on 
the  altar  of  modern  industry  in  South  America  and  the 
Orient.  The  factories  of  China  employ  4,000  men  and 

150.000  women  and  girls,  30,000  of  these  are  in  Shang- 
hai working  for  one  cent  an  hour. 

In  Japan,  out  of  1,300,000  employes  in  the  factories 

850.000  are  women  and  girls  who  work  12,  14,  and  16 
hours  a day,  seven  days  a week,  with  but  two  holidays  a 
month ; 8 1 ,000  return  home  every  year  on  account  of  ill- 
ness, 14,000  of  these  die  of  consumption.  The  average 
wage  during  war  prosperity  was  from  10  to  20  cents 
per  day.  The  price  of  rice  has  gone  up  300%  in  Japan 


while  wages  have  remained  the  same.  There  are  500,- 
000  girls  in  industry  in  South  America,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  girl  away  from  home  in  shop  and  office  and 
school,  who  are  ceaselessly  appealing  to  us  for  help 
and  protection. 

We  come  to  you  with  the  assurance  of  new  glad  co- 
operation in  meeting  triumphantly  the  challenge  of  the 
women  in  a shaken,  suffering,  serving  and  struggling 
world,  in  a way  that  will  represent  on  our  part  real  deep 
character,  development,  self-sacrifice,  and  new  depend- 
ence on  God  and  a victory  worthy  of  the  opportunity. 

Ella  D.  MacLau  rin. 


13 


CHINA— HER  PLACE  IN  THE  WORLD  OF 

NATIONS 

It  is  now  more  than  a half  century  since  William  H. 
Seward,  Lincoln's  great  Secretary  of  State,  prophesized 
with  reference  to  the  Orient  as  follows “The  Pacific 
Ocean,  its  shores,  its  islands,  and  the  vast  regions  be- 
yond, have  become  the  chief  theatre  of  events  in  the 
world’s  great  hereafter.” 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  march  of  civilization 
from  its  early  cradle  along  the  Euphrates  and  the  Nile, 
and  also  to  see  that  the  great  world  struggles  for  free- 
dom have  been  wrought  chiefly  between  the  20th  and 
55th  degrees  of  North  Latitude.  This  narrow  belt  may 
be  divided  into  three  periods:  (1)  Europe;  (2)  the 
United  States;  (3)  China. 

Our  acquisition  of  Hawaii,  Guam  and  the  Phillip- 
pines  has  completed  the  westward  march  of  the  United 
States  across  the  continent  and  the  Pacific,  bringing  us 
into  direct  contact  with  the  Orient  and  the  problems  of 
Asia  which  the  United  States  must  now  face  with  wis- 
dom, courage  and  justice. 

Little  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  Far  East,  but 
students  of  the  Orient  have  noted  the  wonderful  growth 
of  Japan  during  the  past  50  years.  It  has  not  only  de- 
veloped marvelously  along  industrial  lines  but  has  ap- 
parently strengthened  itself  as  an  imperial  power.  To- 
day Japan  represents,  almost  alone  in  the  world,  the  old 
idea  of  autocracy  based  upon  the  rule  of  might  and  the 
“divine  right”  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  world  witnesses 
the  marvelous  spectacle  of  65  million  people  intensely 
trained  to  a high  point  of  efficiency  as  a militaristic  na-  | 
tion  wielding  great  power  in  world  affairs  and  especi- 
ally astute  in  state-craft.  Opposite  to  this  is  the  great 
empire  of  China  which  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
has  survived  as  a nation  and  as  a people  with  cherished 
traditions,  with  a history,  a religion,  a science,  a phil- 

14 


osophy  and  a principle  of  democracy  in  small  groups 
ante-dating  other  ancient,  medieval  and  modern 
countries. 

These  people  naturally  peaceful  and  industrious 
have  desired  for  thousands  of  years  to  live  by  them- 
selves. To  preserve  themselves  and  their  civilization 
they  built  the  great  Chinese  wall  to  keep  out  those  who 
would  practice  upon  them  the  doctrine  that  “might 
makes  right,”  and  thus  for  centuries  they  kept  out  the 
Tartars  and  others  who  would  have  subjected  them  to 
bondage  and  destroyed  them  as  a nation. 

The  noble  ideals  of  the  ancient  Chinese  have  made 
them  victims  of  modern  civilization — so-called — be- 
cause the  Chinese  ideas  are  anti-militaristic,  leaving 
them  helpless  in  the  face  of  military  powers.  Outside 
nations  for  personal  aggrandizement  have  appropriated 
slice  after  slice  of  her  territory  and  have  imposed  upon 
her  not  only  unjust  tribute  of  territory,  and  invaluable 
“concessions,’  but  have  through  means  of  trade,  demor- 
alised some  of  the  provinces  by  the  introduction  of  the 
opium  curse  and  other  destructive  articles,  degrading 
customs,  and  diseases.  From  time  to  time  concessions 
have  been  secured  by  foreign  powers,  some  by  threats 
and  some  by  intrigue  with  corrupt  Chinese  officials  un- 
til China  has  been  stripped  and  impoverished  by  these 
questionable  methods,  and  the  sad  part  of  it  is,  by  so- 
called  Christian  nations.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  Japan 
justifies  herself  by  these  same  methods? 

In  spite  of  all  her  handicaps  of  traditions  and  slow- 
moving  progress,  China  succeeded  in  1911  in  starting  a 
republic  through  an  almost  bloodless  revolution  against 
the  Manchu  dynasty.  It  is  often  said  that  China  was 
not  ready  for  a representative  form  of  government,  but 
others  maintain  that  China  with  her  small  democratic 
groups  operated  locally  for  centuries  was  better  pre- 
pared for  democracy  than  many  European  nations  dom- 
inated by  strong  power  from  the  top.  Her  people  have 


been  democratic  from  time  immemorial  and  so  com- 
plete and  satisfactory  has  been  this  local  form  of  home 
rule  that  they  have  had  little  use  for  national  govern- 
ment, and  the  national  government  had  little  use  for  the 
communities  except  to  collect  taxes  from  them.  There 
has  been  no  militaristic  caste  or  class  strong  enough  for 
leadership  to  meet  emergencies  as  has  been  the  case  in 
Japan  where  they  had  a strong  government  from  the 
top  down,  where  the  so-called  lower  classes  had  little 
or  nothing  to  do  with  the  government.  But  of  the  two 
systems,  China’s  is  based  upon  the  soundest  and  is  build- 
ing from  the  bottom  up,  while  the  autocratic  govern- 
ments are  tumbling  from  the  top  down  the  world 
over.  Failure  of  German  and  Russian  autocracies  are 
examples. 

The  China  of  today  is  a new  China  and  is  becom- 
ing more  progressive  every  day,  a fact  obscured  by  the 
great  concentration  upon  Europe  during  the  war.  One 
of  the  excuses  given  for  keeping  China  out  of  the 
European  war  was  the  danger  of  awakening  400,000,000 
Asiatics.  It  must  be  remembered  in  this  connection 
that  almost  the  only  Asiatics  who  appeared  in  France 
or  Flanders  were  the  200,000  Chinese  coolies  now  re- 
turning to  China  with  larger  vision,  greater  experience 
and  clarified  views  as  to  the  difference  between  auto- 
cracy and  democracy.  The  new  republic  of  China  is  a 
fact  with  which  the  world  will  now  have  to  deal  and 
the  question  is,  shall  China  be  welcomed  into  the  family 
of  free  nations  and  saved  from  the  rapaciousness  of 
world  greed  and  ambition  for  territory  and  power,  or 
must  she  in  self-defense  be  forced  to  become  a great 
military  power,  with  sure  possibilities  of  making  Asia 
the  world’s  greatest  battlefield?  One  by  one  China’s 
great  seaports  have  been  ruthlessly  seized  and  now 
Tsingtao,  her  last  sea  exit  of  note,  is  about  to  be 
awarded  to  a foreign  power  by  the  Paris  Peace  Con- 
ference, and  that,  too,  at  a time  when  the  entire  Chris- 

16 


tian  world  is  dreaming  of  and  praying  for  international 
peace. 

In  a word,  China  has  needed  no  outside  help  to  pre- 
serve her  nationality.  She  has  fought  her  way  through 
to  the  present  and  survived  in  spite  of  outside  hind- 
rances. The  curse  of  opium  thrust  upon  her,  poisoning 
millions  of  her  subjects,  aroused  China  to  the  point  of 
abolishing  the  opium  traffic  and  it  is  everlastingly  to 
her  credit  that  only  last  year  she  bought  up  the  stock 
of  opium  available  in  China  and  deliberately  destroyed 
it  by  a fire  at  a cost  of  over  20  millian  dollars.  Not- 
withstanding this  fact,  opium  is  still  being  smuggled 
into  China  in  great  quantities  and  the  more  deadly  drug 
morphine  is  also  being  introduced. 

One  of  China’s  drawbacks  today  is  a vast  territory 
hampered  by  lack  of  transportation  and  good  roads. 
She  has  now  less  than  7,000  miles  of  railway  against 
250,000  for  the  United  States.  The  movement  for  good 
roads  is  making  great  headway  throughout  China  and 
this  fact  together  with  the  introduction  of  automobiles 
and  trucks  will  open  up  new  developments  in  every  di- 
rection. China  for  centuries  has  mostly  relied  upon 
water  transportation  and  even  this  she  has  developed  by 
extending  and  dredging  old  canals.  The  great  canal 
of  China,  over  1,000  miles  long,  was  built  200  B.  C.  and 
this  is  now  being  improved. 

The  natural  resources  of  China  have  only  been  de- 
veloped to  the  extent  of  about  two  percent.  Geologists 
and  engineers  tell  us  that  in  coal,  iron  and  other  useful 
minerals,  China  is  one  of  the  most  richly  endowed  coun- 
tries in  the  world.  In  fact,  she  has  all  the  natural  re- 
sources necessary  for  self-support  both  in  peace  and  in 
war  and  can  be  independent  for  centuries,  if  necessary 
without  outside  support.  The  question  is  simply  one 
of  development  without  robbery,  and  this  is  where 
America  can  help.  If  China  can  get  aid  without  con- 

17 


fiscation,  she  will  become  one  of  the  richest  and  most 
prosperous  nations  in  the  world.  She  has  unbounded 
natural  resources  and  the  greatest  supply  of  cheap  labor 
in  the  world, — a rare  combination — which  puts  her  in 
an  incomparable  position  for  production  and  world 
trade.  America  can  render  a great  service  by  insisting 
upon  John  Hay’s  policy  of  the  open  door  with  the  hon- 
est chance  for  China  to  become  self-supporting  and 
with  an  equal  chance  for  all  the  world  to  compete  for 
her  trade. 

Education ; 

In  educational  matters,  China  is  struggling  up  from 
her  centuries  of  traditions  which  have  resulted  in  a pe- 
culiar intellectual  caste  of  mind  linked  closely  with  tra- 
dition and  sentiment  for  antiquity.  But  China  is 
emerging  gradually  through  modern  influences  and  is 
headed  in  the  right  direction.  She  is  developing  in  her 
own  way  that  which  will  probably  be  the  best  for  her 
own  people.  Outside  nations  should  not  require  nor 
expect  China  to  adopt  western  methods  and  ideas  en- 
tirely. These  would  not  be  effective  and  might  be  re- 
troactive. It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  there  are  scat- 
tered throughout  the  world  some  thousands  of  Chinese 
students  in  colleges  and  universities.  Sixteen  hundred 
of  these,  of  whom  150  are  women,  are  in  American  in- 
stitutions of  learning.  About  25%  of  these  return  every 
year  and  new  ones  take  their  places.  Almost  all  the 
Chinese  representatives  in  Paris  at  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence were  graduats  of  American  universities  and  most 
of  them  were  pronounced  Christians. 

Statistics  of  the  Board  of  Education  appearing  im- 
mediately after  the  revolution  of  1911  give  the  number 
of  students  in  all  government  schools  and  colleges  as 
1,000,000  using  round  numbers.  In  1914  the  total  num- 
ber is  given  as  3,500,000  and  for  1917,  4,000,000.  The 
total  number  of  schools  and  colleges  in  1914  is  108,000 


and  for  1917,  120,000.  Thus  there  was  a rapid  increase 
during  the  first  three  years  of  the  republic.  Under 
American  standards  there  should  be  an  attendance  of 
eighty  million  pupils  in  the  Chinese  schools. 

Phonetic  Script,  Hope  of  China. 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  there  has  been  in- 
vented by  the  Conference  for  the  standardization  of 
pronunciation,  held  in  1913,  a system  of  phonetic  script 
which  has  received  official  recognition.  This  script 
has  three  functions,  to  unify  spoken  dialects;  second,  to 
help  the  study  of  Chinese  characters;  third,  to  educate 
the  illiterates.  Institutes  have  been  held  for  the  pur- 
pose of  extending  the  knowledge  of  this  script  and  some 
of  the  higher  normal  colleges  like  Peking,  Nanking  and 
Wuchang,  have  undertaken  the  preliminary  introduc- 
tion of  it.  In  Peking  over  100,000  people  have  already 
been  reached  with  it.  An  effort  will  be  made  in  certain 
towns  this  winter  to  reach  every  man,  woman  and  child 
as  an  experiment  of  its  efficiency.  The  same  plan  was 
taught  to  some  of  the  coolies  in  France  with  marked 
success.  This  script  consists  of  39  characters  by  which 
an  illiterate  person  can  be  taught  fundamental  reading 
in  two  or  three  months.  The  Mandarin  language  is  of 
course  the  universal  language  of  the  educated  classes 
in  China,  but  almost  every  community  in  China  has  its 
provincial  dialect  so  that  Chinese  living  20  miles  apart 
often  can  not  understand  each  other.  It  will  be  seen 
at  a glance  what  this  phonetic  script  means  for  China. 
If  carried  out  as  now  seems  likely,  ten  years  hence  every 
child  and  adult  in  China  may  be  taught  to  read  some- 
thing that  will  be  a national  means  of  popular  com- 
munication. This  means  national  thought,  national 
education,  national  sentiment  and  a resultant  patriotism 
which  will  be  the  ultimate  defense  of  the  republic  and 
secure  its  protection  against  dangers  within  and  perils 
from  without.  In  short,  it  means  a revolution  along 


safe  and  sane  lines  and  it  is  not  only  a promised  hope 
for  China  but  another  blessing  and  safeguard  for  peace 
in  Asia,  and  peace  in  Asia  means  a long  step  towards 
world  peace. 

Dr.  Yui  in  a stirring  appeal  for  “a  strong  and  regu- 
lar propaganda  for  the  cause  of  Education”  in  China, 
says: — “We  do  not  need  to  propagate  any  educational 
theories,  however  sound  or  beautiful  they  may  be.  All 
we  need  to  do  is  to  bring  before  the  people  in  a most 
vivid  and  convincing  way  the  facts  about  education  and 
all  the  benefits  it  confers,  and  has  already  conferred 
upon  other  countries  which  have  duly  emphasized  it. 

“In  our  experience  of  educational  lecture  work  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.’s  of  China,  in  which  especially  con- 
structed apparatus  has  been  used,  according  to  scien- 
tific principles  for  vividness,  we  see  tremendous  possi- 
bilities of  an  educational  propaganda  of  the  kind,  when 
it  is  carried  on  on  a much  more  extensive  scale.  In 
three  full  years’  lecturing  in  about  fifteen  provinces, 
there  has  not  been  one  place  where  this  type  of  lecture 
has  not  most  deeply  gripped  the  people.  What  we  need 
to  show  is  the  benefit  of  education  to  the  individual,  the 
family,  the  local  community,  the  country,  and  the 
world,  and  how  to  get  this  education.” 

The  message  to  the  world  is  clearly  “hands  off 
China”  except  the  hands  of  helpfulness.  The 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  are  peculiarly  fitted 
to  lend  the  helping  hand  to  China,  and  the  200,000 
Chinese  returning  from  France  offer  unprecedented 
opportunities  for  those  who  understand  the  work. 
America  has  an  opportunity  to  aid  generously  and  in- 
telligently. 

Dr.  Ida  Kahn,  one  of  the  first  Chinese  women  to 
graduate  from  an  American  university,  made  this  re- 
cent appeal  to  modern  Chinese  women.  “Let  our 
women  of  education  in  Peking  and  elsewhere  gather 
themselves  together  to  work  for  the  schools,  Red  Cross, 

20 


Y.  W.  C.  A.,  and  everything  else  which  bespeaks  the 
betterment  of  the  country,  instead  of  staying  at  home  to 
play  poker  and  “sparow,”  and  going  out  to  attend  end- 
less dinners,  tea  parties  and  dances.  Our  country  is  in 
danger  of  going  over  a precipice,  and  the  slightest 
push  in  the  wrong  direction  will  complete  our  undoing. 
Let  us  rally  our  forces  and  help  the  Ship  of  State  to 
move  safely.  One  person  cannot  accomplish  much,  but 
one  or  two  hundred  millions  of  women  can  work  won- 
ders. Let  us  go  back  to  a more  Spartan-like  simplicity 
of  living,  and  let  us  build  up  social  service  until  every 
city  in  China  is  sanitary,  every  section  of  the  town  has 
its  proper  schools,  and  every  child,  whether  girl  or  boy, 
is  sent  to  such  schools.  True  social  service  brings 
democracy  in  its  train,  and  we  who  are  citizens  of  a 
new  Republic  can  help  to  make  it  truly  great  by  preach- 
ing and  living  democracy  all  the  time.  Why  not  learn 
to  do  our  household  duties,  deeming  it  effeminate  to 
be  waited  upon  by  maids  and  slave  girls  all  the  time? 

“Let  us  at  the  same  time  strive  to  put  away  slavery 
and  concubinage  from  our  country.  No  true  emancipa- 
tion can  take  place  until  we  firmly  uproot  these  evils. 

“The  status  of  women  in  China,  while  leaving  much 
to  be  desired,  still  is  quite  hopeful  when  we  consider 
that  she  is  just  emerging  into  the  sisterhood  of  the  na- 
tions. Our  men  can  depend  upon  us  to  bear  the  burdens 
of  the  day,  for  nowhere  is  there  a more  industrious, 
diligent,  and  persevering  womanhood  than  in  China. 
Christ  alone  can  crown  our  womanhood  by  giving  us 
true  liberty  of  mind,  soul  and  body,  and  we  who  are 
made  free  will  herald  in  a new  era  of  growth  and 
prosperity  for  our  beloved  country. 

Two  thousand  years  before  Christ,  the  Chinese  phil- 
osophers evolved  an  ethical  precept  now  recognized  the 
world  over  as  the  Golden  Rule  of  Christianity.  Con- 
fucius recorded  this  in  negative  form  about  500  B.  C., 
which  freely  translated  says:  “What  you  do  not  like 

i\ 


when  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do  to  others.”  Christ 
put  it  in  positive  form.  This  simple  precept  is  the  best 
foundation  for  a league  of  peace  so  far  invented.  It  is 
based  upon  righteousness  and  justice  and  there  will  be 
no  safe  and  sane  peace  in  this  world  until  this  original 
Chinese  precept  is  universally  recognized.  Ultimate 
world  peace  must  come  through  the  evolution  of  the 
international  mind  and  the  international  heart  of  the 
peoples  of  the  earth,  restraining  governments  from  the 
old  order  of  “power  and  pelf.”  In  this  international 
work  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  have  a real 
contribution  to  make  towards  the  reclamation  of  a war 
weary  world. 

Andrew  B.  Humphrey, 

Oct.  8,  1919. 


1 


22 


CHINA  TODAY:  A BIRDSEYE  VIEW 

A visitor  coming  out  of  the  Chinese  art  exhibit  at  a 
recent  exposition  remarked  in  a tone  of  great  surprise, 
“It  is  a revelation  to  me.  I never  dreamed  that  the 
Chinese  had  produced  or  were  capable  of  such  achieve- 
ments.” That  men  did  not  know  (and  the  majority  of 
men  and  women  do  not  know)  that  for  twenty-five  cen- 
turies— from  a thousand  years  before  to  fifteen  hundred 
years  after  Christ — China  was  abreast  of  or  leading  the 
world’s  civilization  and  culture.  It  is  only  in  the  last 
four  hundred  years,  and  more  particularly  in  the  last 
one  hundred  years  (in  this  modern  era  of  applied  sci- 
ence) that  China  has  lost  the  lead  and  straggles  behind 
in  confusion.  Where  will  the  year  2000  find  China.'' 
That  is  possibly  the  single  greatest  question  the  world 
has  to  answer  in  this  twentieth  century.  John  Hay 
though  being  dead  yet  speaks  in  living,  timely  words 
when  he  said,  “The  storm-center  of  the  world  has  grad- 
ually shifted  to  China.  Whoever  understands  that 
mighty  empire  socially,  politically,  economically,  re- 
ligiously has  a key  to  world  politics  for  the  next  five 
centuries.” 

This  is  no  exaggeration.  China  cannot  be  exagger- 
ated. China  looms  large  on  our  new  horizons.  China’s 
importance  was  foreordained.  When  the  seas  and  the 
dry  land  were  separated  and  the  mountains  were  heaved 
out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth — that  day  the  coming 
greatness  of  China  for  all  time  was  assured.  It  was 
written  in  her  very  location  on  the  globe — in  the  world’s 
temperate  zone  where  alone  all  the  world’s  great  cult- 
ures have  arisen.  It  was  written  into  her  fertile  soil — 
the  alluvial  deposits  of  her  mighty  rivers,  further  en- 
riched by  enslaved  winds  that  bring  their  yearly  tribute 
of  rich  dust  from  the  norwest  and  rain  from  the  south- 
east. It  was  written  when  she  was  underlaid  with  vast 
beds  of  iron  and  coal  and  copper,  among  the  largest 

23 


and  richest  on  earth — the  raw  materials  for  the  great 
industries  that  should  arise  when  the  stone  age  and  the 
bronze  age  and  the  iron  age  should  give  place  to  the  age 
of  steel.  Her  size  as  a nation  was  decreed  when  the 
mountains  and  the  deserts  shut  her  in  from  the  north 
and  west  and  the  ocean  from  the  south  and  east — a com- 
pact land  two-thirds  the  size  of  ours. 

But  China’s  present  importance  and  future  greatnes' 
are  not  dependent  principally  on  these  assets  which 
have  been  enumerated.  Her  richest  treasure  is  her  peo- 
ple and  she  is  rich  in  that.  If  miser-like  she  sat  down 
to  count  them,  each  of  her  twenty-one*  provinces  a 
heavy  bag  of  precious  human  lives,  she  would  count 
somewhere  between  350  and  400  millions.  China  among 
the  nations  is  the  greatest  multi-millionaire  of  them  all. 
She  owns  one-fourth  of  the  raw  material  of  human  per- 
sonality. And  what  of  the  quality  of  this  quantity? 
Those  who  know  the  Chinese  best  believe  in  them  the 
most.  Those  who  have  lived  longest  among  them  see 
in  all  this  mass  of  men  and  women  unspeakable  possi- 
bilities. Scraping  off  the  veneer  of  filth,  ignorance, 
superstition,  extreme  poverty,  foot-binding,  concubin- 
age, and  immorality  (which  with  two  exceptions  are 
found  yet  in  distressing  measure  even  in  our  own  Amer- 
ica) and  getting  down  to  the  natural  wood  of  the  Chi- 
nese temperament  and  nature,  they  find  it  hard,  of  fine, 
smooth  grain,  and  capable  of  taking  a high  finish. 
These  Chinese  are  by  nature  capable,  resourceful,  pat- 
ient, industrious,  faithful,  solid,  cheerful  and  by  hered- 
ity lovers  of  learning,  lovers  of  peace,  and  lovers  of  the 
democratic  principle.  Think  what  this  means  for  the 
future  of  the  human  race,  after  the  one-fourth  and  the 
three-fourths  have  mingled  their  waters  in  the  new 
stream  of  human  relationship  and  history. 

China,  however,  is  not  flowing  a clear  pure  stream, 
but  like  her  own  Yellow  River  flows  muddily  along. 

*18  in  China  Proper,  3 in  Manchuria. 


She  is  in  utter  confusion.  To  see  the  oldest  and  proud- 
est and  greatest  nation  on  earth,  the  mother  of  the  splen- 
did civilization  of  the  Far  East,  reduced  by  the  turn  of 
events  to  a state  of  childish  helplessness  is  one  of  the 
saddest  sights  in  all  our  time,  and  one  of  the  saddest 
stories  of  history.  She  who  had  lived  her  long  life  in 
security  and  splendor  in  a golden  palace  fronting  on  the 
sea  and  backed  by  high  mountains  and  broad  deserts  has 
had  every  protecting  gate  and  door  broken  down  by 
ruthless  nations  who  would  brook  no  policy  of  splendid 
isolation.  The  trade  and  resources  of  China  were  nec- 
essary to  the  world  and  the  world  laid  rough  hands 
upon  them.  To  such  a state  of  weakness  has  China  been 
brought  that  now  only  a sense  of  decency — if  there  be 
any  such — on  the  part  of  the  nations  can  keep  them  out 
of  her  apartments,  several  of  which  (and  those  the 
choicest)  are  already  tenanted  by  unwelcome  intru- 
ders. China  has  no  physical  power  to  protect  her  honor 
and  her  privacy.  She  stands  today  a great  figure  ap- 
pealing to  the  pity  of  the  world,  and  it  is  a question 
whether  those  who  pity  her  and  would  rescue  and  re- 
store her  are  not  too  late.  One  thing  is  certain:  no 
nation  ever  needed  friends — protection,  helping  friends 
— as  China  needs  friends  today. 

What  are  the  difficulties  that  face  China?  We  name 
a few  of  them : 

1.  Her  own  divided  state.  The  Chinese  Republic 
established  in  1911,  and  modelled  upon  the  United 
States,  was  an  attempted  solution  for  her  weakness  and 
inefficiency.  Its  failures,  however,  have  already  far 
out-numbered  its  successes.  Those  who  expected  the 
Republic  and  the  millenium  to  arrive  simultaneously 
have  been  bitterly  disappointed.  It  takes  more  than 
a constitutional  democracy  to  save  any  nation.  Instead 
of  a unified  country  we  behold  a divided  China,  the 
radical  South  fighting  almost  continuously  in  more  or 
less  severe  civil  war  the  conservative  North.  The  pres- 

25 


ent  President  was  elected  by  a rump  Parliament  of 
Northern  men,  from  which  the  Southern  delegates  were 
absent.  To  add  to  the  difficulties  of  unification  are  the 
lack  of  railroads  (only  about  7,000  miles  for  all  of 
China  being  now  in  operation,  or  approaching  comple- 
tion), the  lack  of  money  to  build  railroads,  and  the 
lack  of  common  vernacular.  The  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  unification  are  at  present,  when  China  must  be  uni- 
fied or  perish,  almost  insuperable  and  heart-breaking. 

2.  Official  corruption.  The  corruption  of  China’s 
old-style  officials,  who  are  still  for  the  most  part  in 
power,  is  notorious.  It  is  these  men  who  are  selling 
China  out  for  Japanese  gold.  In  one  year  they  bor- 
rowed $220,000,000  from  Japan,  giving  in  wholesale 
fashion,  as  their  security,  China’s  most  precious  natural 
resources.  J apan  today  holds  a first  mortgage  on  China. 
The  money  thus  acquired  is  not  spent  for  the  good  of 
China,  but  to  satisfy  the  selfish  ambitions  and  sordid 
pleasures  of  these  military  governors  and  civil  officials. 

3.  Financial  bankruptcy.  China,  in  spite  of  her 
potential  wealth,  is  financially  bankrupt.  She  owes 
heavy  sums  to  foreign  creditors,  Japanese  and  Euro- 
pean. As  a result,  foreign  control  throttles  the  national 
development  of  her  economic  life,  for  foreigners  have 
their  finders  on  her  trade,  her  tariffs,  and  various  con- 
cessions on  the  coast  and  in  the  heart  of  China. 

4.  Japanese  aggression.  This  is  China’s  most  acute 
and  critical  danger  today.  Southern  Manchuria,  East- 
ern Inner  Mongolia,  Shantung,  the  Yangtze  valley,  Fu- 
kien— into  all  these  the  Japanese  are  infiltrating  with 
trade,  concessions,  and  armies  of  soldiers  and  agents. 
It  is  this  danger,  oncoming  and  overwhelming,  which  is 
arousing  China  as  she  has  never  been  arousd  in  all  her 
history.  Does  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  toll  the  bell  for 
a doomed  China,  doomed  as  a national  entity,  or  does  it 
mark  out  the  locus  of  the  next  World  War,  when  ships 
shall  carry  American  armies  across  the  Pacific  in  place 


of  the  Atlantic,  or  is  it  through  a League  of  Nations,  a 
super-national  power,  to  be  the  ultimate  salvation  of 
China  from  her  enemies  that  throng  her  round?  These 
are  momentous  questions  of  today. 

5.  The  power  of  the  military  governors.  It  is  the 
military  governors  that  hold  the  reins  of  power  in 
China  today,  when  of  all  times  the  civil  should  be  in 
control.  Under  their  leadership  dominated  by  Japan 
will  this  great  peace-loving  nation  become  a militarism 
to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world,  to  create  race-strife, 
to  fight  it  out  with  the  whites  for  world-supremacy? 

6.  The  ignorance  of  China.  A knowledge-loving, 
knowledge-worshipping  people,  ruled  by  scholars  for 
unnumbered  generations,  ninety-seven  per  cent,  illiter- 
ate! That  is  the  paradox  of  China.  China  to  be  safe 
in  the  new  world  and  safe  for  the  new  world  needs  a 
million  new  schools  and  a million  new  teachers.  Where 
shall  she  get  them  and  how  train  them,  when  her  treas- 
ury lies  empty? 

7.  Her  three  religious  systems  (Confucianism, 
Buddhism,  Taoism)  are  unsuited  to  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury civilization  that  is  flooding  the  oriental  lands  and 
carrying  before  it  old  institutions,  old  ideals  and  ideas. 
Confucianism  with  all  its  splendid  moral  code  stands 
facing  the  past,  while  the  new  China  rushes  into  the 
future;  it  stands  emphasizing  the  family,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  rights  of  the  individual,  especially  of  wom- 
an, the  neighborhood,  and  the  larger  groups,  when  the 
world  is  talking  in  terms  of  internationalism,  social  re- 
sponsibility, industrial  democracy,  community  life, 
rights  of  woman,  and  a fair  chance  for  every  individ- 
ual. Confucianism,  Buddhism,  Taoism — all  are  being 
weighed  in  the  balances  of  an  age  of  applied  science, 
historical  research,  and  international  relationships,  are 
found  seriously  wanting,  and  their  dominion,  as  in  Ja- 
pan, is  fast  being  given  over  to  Agnosticism  and  Athe- 
ism. “One  quarter  of  the  human  race  is  slipping  from 

27 


its  spiritual  moorings.  Surely,  never  was  richer  freight 
derelict  on  the  waters  of  time.”* 

Shall  we  then  despair  for  China?  Not  at  all!  Who 
proved  neighbor  to  him  that  fell  among  thieves?  Was 
it  not  he  that  rendered  help  in  spite  of  his  different  race,  . 
heredity,  profession,  ability,  education,  and  wealth?  I 
Are  we  as  Christians  to  pass  by  on  the  other  side  of 
China’s  need,  deeming  it  a hopeless  case  or  not  our  busi- 
ness? Are  we  not  physically  neighbor  to  China — in 
this  new  Pacific  Era  of  the  history  of  the  world  when 
her  frontage  is  directly  opposite  to  ours?  Are  we  not 
mentally  and  spiritually  neighbor  to  the  Chinese  who 
have  been  called  because  of  their  likeness  to  us  in  many 
ways  “the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  East”? 

Signs  of  hope  are  everywhere.  The  Chinese  student- 
class,  students  of  government,  missionary,  and  private 
schools  alike,  are  rising  in  defence  of  their  land  in  one 
of  the  most  heroic  and  stirring  movements  ever  record- 
ed in  any  land.  The  commercial  boycott  is  proving  a 
powerful  weapon  in  Chinese  hands.  The  conscience  of 
the  world  is  being  roused  at  the  recital  of  the  wrongs 
done  China,  and  no  further  wrong  will  go  unchal- 
lenged. The  Christian  forces  are  recording  successes 
that  twenty  years  ago  would  have  been  declared  beyond 
belief.  With  a vastly  reinforced  equipment,  human 
and  material,  there  is  no  limit  to  what  may  be  done  for 
Jesus  Christ  in  China  during  this  generation.  Even 
China’s  leading  classes  are  turning  to  Christianity  with 
eager  questioning  interest,  wondering  if  in  Jesus  Christ 
lies  the  future  safety  and  development  of  China.  “The  a 
Yellow  Peril  has  become  the  Golden  Opportunity”  for  ' 
the  Christian  forces  of  the  world.  Shall  we  then  render 
service  of  heart  and  hand  and  life  to  this  peace-loving, 
knowledge-loving,  home-loving,  democratic,  construc- 

*World’s  Missionary  Conference,  Edinburgh. 

28 


tive  people  ? Shall  it  be  the  Christian  democracies  of 
China  and  America  that  together  shall  control,  with  all 
their  resources  and  in  all  their  power,  the  destiny  of  the 
world? 


Oscar  MacMillan  Buck, 

Ohio  Wesleyan  University. 


29 


THE  ASSOCIATION  MOVEMENT  IN  CHINA 

The  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association  entered 
China  at  the  urgent  request  of  both  the  Chinese  and  the 
existing  missionary  body.  It  came  into  being  with  New 
China  and  has  been  a part  of  it.  With  this  propitious 
background ; with  its  emphasis  on  the  discovery  and 
development  of  Chinese  leadership,  and  with  its  flexi- 
bility of  method  the  Association  stands  prepared  to  do 
a unique  work  in  China. 

The  Association  in  China  is  also  an  experiment  in 
internationalism,  for  though  its  membership  is  Chinese 
its  secretaryship  includes  young  women  from  Great 
Britian  (England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Australia  and 
Canada),  and  from  Sweden  as  well  as  from  the  United 
States  of  America.  All  learn  the  Chinese  language  and 
work  shoulder  to  shoulder  not  only  with  the  Chinese 
women  but  with  each  other.  These  secretaries  all  work 
under  the  direction  of  the  National  Committee  of 
China,  a committee  composed  of  Chinese,  British  and 
American  women,  and  under  Local  Boards  the  ma- 
jority of  which  are  all  Chinese.  Thus  through  interna- 
tional cooperation  is  being  developed  an  indiginous 
Chinese  Association. 

The  object  of  the  Association  here  as  elsewhere  is 
the  bringing  of  abundant  life, — social,  intellectual, 
physical  and  spiritual, — to  the  girls  and  women  of  all 
China.  The  framework  is  very  like  that  in  America, 
the  work  falling  there  as  here  into  the  two  general  di- 
visions of  City  and  Student  work. 

City  work  usually  begins  with  the  girl  or  woman  in 
her  own  home, — the  woman  whom  New  China  has 
found  too  late,  for  school  life.  Sometimes  this  means 
that  she  has  been  married  very  young.  Again  the  new 
life  has  found  her  when  she  is  too  old  to  enter  a primary 
school  and  has  no  foundation  for  anything  else.  In 
either  case  her  horizon  is  still  bounded  by  that  traversty 
of  home  which  social  conditions  of  old  China  have  cre- 


30 


ated.  This  if  the  family  is  “conservative,”  if  liberal,  the 
girl  is  swept  out  into  a liberty  of  action  and  life  that  is 
as  dangerous  as  it  is  new.  In  both  cases  she  stands  in 
dire  need  of  friendship  and  guidance. 

To  these  young  women  and  girls,  the  City  Associa- 
tion offers  wholesome  social  life,  an  intellectual  chance, 
through  special  classes  and  lectures,  physical  develop- 
ment and  a knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  abundant 
life  in  Him.  The  City  Association  also  ministers  to  the 
non-mission  school  student  in  that  city  and  is  beginning, 
largely  through  its  Chinese  leadership,  to  touch  the  in- 
dustrial girls. 

It  takes  a long  time  to  organize  a City  Association  in 
China,  and  get  it  to  a place  of  service  in  a community. 
After  the  invitation  from  Chinese  and  the  missionaries 
of  the  city  has  been  received,  pioneer  secretaries  must 
be  found,  secretaries  trained  in  America  or  some  other 
country  where  the  Association  has  been  established  long 
enough  to  produce  leadership.  After  assigning  these 
secretaries  to  the  city  in  question,  they  must  learn  Chi- 
nese, must  come  to  know  all  kinds  and  conditions  of 
people,  must  discover  and  secure  Chinese  leadership  for 
secretaries  and  committee  members  and  must  make  a 
thorough  survey  of  the  city,  before  reaching  even  the 
stage  known  as  pre-organization.  Before  any  city  can 
be  really  organized  it  must  also  have  as  many  as  five 
Bible  classes  under  Association  leadership  and  a 
pledged  membership,  a strong  nucleus  of  whom  are 
Christian. 

The  Board  of  Directors  is  elected  as  with  us,  by  the 
membership,  and  it  decides  on  and  raises  its  own  bud- 
get. City  Associations  in  China  now  use  the  plan  of  co- 
operating with  the  National  Committee  in  an  Annual 
Budget  campaign.  This  finance  work  is  developing 
self-confidence,  cooperation,  team  spirit  and  many 
otner  desirable  qualities  of  leadership  among  the  Chi- 
nese women  as  well  as  securing  their  funds.  Their 

31 


budgets  always  include  a generous  percentage  for  the 
support  of  both  National  and  World  work.  The  only 
help  asked  for  from  abroad  is  for  permanent  equip- 
ment or  for  initiating  new  work. 

Organized  student  work  in  China  is  found  mostly 
in  the  Mission  Schools,  where  the  necessary  Christian 
leadership  can  be  assured.  The  great  emphasis  in  this 
work  is  on  self-expression  and  the  development  of  lead- 
ership. It  is  also  most  strategic  in  our  work  with  non- 
mission schools, — the  graduates  of  the  mission  schools 
being  much  in  demand  as  teachers,  and  often  giving 
the  Association  the  only  possible  entrance  to  the  school 
to  which  they  go. 

The  non-mission  school  student  body  is  the  most 
potential  and  in  many  ways  the  most  needy  group  of 
young  women  in  China.  Their  power  of  leadership 
and  something  of  the  spirit  that  is  in  them  was  shown 
in  the  demonstrations  of  the  Student  Strike  of  the  past 
summer.  In  the  Student  Unions,  formed  at  this  time, 
in  all  the  large  centers  of  China,  the  girls  had  equal  rep- 
resentation 'with  the  boys,  and  though  not  so  much  in 
the  public  eye,  were  no  whit  behind  in  their  activities. 

The  Association  has  a friendly  touch  with  these  stu- 
dents in  every  city  where  we  have  secretaries, — and  is 
the  only  Christian  agency  which  does  have  this  touch 
and  consequent  possibility  of  helpfulness.  Association 
secretaries  are  leading  physical  classes  and  Bible  clas- 
ses in  the  schools  themselves  and  in  cities  where  we  have 
organized  Association  there  are  also  week-end  confer- 
ences, recreation,  lectures,  special  classes,  clubs,  etc., 
planned  especially  for  the  students  themselves,  at  the 
building. 

The  Time  Investment  Club,  corresponding  some- 
what to  the  Eight  Week  Club  in  America  and  enlisting 
students  in  evangelistic  work  and  social  service  for  their 
home  communities  is  an  integral  part  of  the  student 
work  in  China.  Harriet  M.  Smith,  Sept.,  IQIQ. 


Extracts  from  Miss  Lowry’s  May,  IQIQ>  Report 

Every  profession  and  country  has  its  peculiar  termi- 
nology. The  newcomer  in  China  at  first  thinks  that  the 
majority  of  words  used  apply  to  the  mission  field  and 
its  peculiar  problems.  One  word  especially  is  heard 
everywhere, — contacts.  We  are  told  from  the  very  be- 
ginning not  to  let  one  opportunity  for  making  a contact 
slip  by.  Indeed,  we  may  even  get  too  exaggerated  idea 
of  the  importance  of  this  term.  Later  when  it  comes  to 
mean  some  kind  of  a link  between  ourselves,  the  work 
we  are  doing  and  some  other  person,  we  realize  that  its 
importance  has  not  been  over  emphasized.  It  does  in 
fact  count  one  of  the  most  important  functions  of  our 
work  in  China.  After  all  we  can  only  accomplish  re- 
sults as  we  touch  and  influence  the  lives  of  the  individ- 
uals we  meet.  A wide  awake,  keen  missionary  lets  few 
chances  for  gaining  entrance  into  the  homes  and  lives 
of  his  acquaintance  escape  him.  English  classes  in  non- 
mission schools  or  with  a small  group  of  friends,  coach- 
ing a football  team,  teaching  tennis,  giving  gym  lessons, 
all  with  an  eye  to  future  Bible  classes  and  friendships 
with  the  students,  are  some  of  the  more  common  meth- 
ods of  getting  contacts.  Here  in  Hangchow  we  have  a 
unique  club  which  makes  possible  the  contacts  in  an 
interesting  and  valuable  way. 

The  Good  Fellowship  Club  has  been  the  result  of  a 
progressive  young  doctor  to  give  the  Chinese  especially 
the  Christians,  some  healthful  form  of  social  inter- 
course. The  channels  for  a good  clean  social  life  among 
the  Chinese  people  are  very  limited.  In  the  past,  be- 
coming a Christian  has  often  meant  cutting  oneself  off 
from  friends  and  relatives.  The  feast  days,  the  festivals, 
harmless  in  themselves  were  tabooed.  As  for  joint  meet- 
ings of  men  and  women, — well,  such  a thing  was  never 
heard  of  in  decent  society.  The  universal  wall  that  di- 
vides men  and  women  is  stronger  and  more  impassable 
than  any  structure  made  of  stone  and  wood  could  pos- 

33 


sibly  be.  The  plan  of  this  young  doctor  to  establish  a 
club  where  the  men  could  come  to  enjoy  a good  time 
with  each  other  as  well  as  bringing  their  wives  with 
them  was  discouraged.  The  men  sniffed  at  the  idea  of 
their  wives  going  out  of  an  evening,  let  alone  accom- 
panying their  husbands.  The  wives  shrank  back  and 
muttered  something  to  the  effect  that  it  was  never  done.  < 
However  there  were  a few  people  willing  to  act  as 
pioneers  in  the  cause  of  social  intercourse. 

The  early  meetings  of  the  club  were  not  always  pleas- 
ant. Outsiders  laughed  and  considered  the  whole  idea 
a huge  joke.  Sitting  around  at  home  in  the  evening! 
What  could  one  do?  The  members  kept  on  meeting 
first  at  this  home  and  then  at  that.  The  strangeness  was 
passing  away.  The  men  no  longer  felt  that  it  was  queer 
when  they  started  out  on  Tuesday  night  with  their  wives 
for  some  friend’s  home.  The  women  began  to  enjoy 
the  outing  and  after  a while  to  take  part  in  the  discus- 
sions. The  men  were  surprised  to  find  out  how  well 
their  “stay-at-home”  wives  could  express  themselves. 

It  became  the  fashion  for  the  members  to  indulge 
in  friendly  chaffing  and  to  occasionally  play  jokes  on 
one  another.  The  membership  grew.  The  fame  of  these 
meetings  spread  until  many  of  the  erstwhile  scoffers 
were  begging  to  be  admitted.  At  first  the  discussions 
were  conducted  in  English  but  in  a short  time  it  was 
decided  to  have  them  in  Chinese  so  that  more  of  the 
women  would  understand  and  take  part.  This  year  the 
club  has  become  so  big  that  it  has  been  divided  into 
two  groups.  These  sections  meet  separately  three  Tues- 
day night  out  of  the  month.  The  fourth  week  there  is  a 
joint  meeting  with  a special  program.  The  first  meet-  i 
ing  after  the  division  each  section  had  twenty-five  pres- 
ent. This  number  has  continued  to  come  weekly. 
From  the  original  idea  of  a mutual  good  time  the  pur- 
pose of  the  club  has  grown  until  now  the  members  feel 
that  it  should  aid  in  reaching  the  non-Christians  they 

34 


know  and  vitalizing  the  religion  of  their  Christian 
friends.  To  this  end  the  discussion  each  time  is  on  sub- 
jects which  interest  and  help  the  members  and  their 
friends. 

The  personnel  of  a meeting  is  most  interesting.  Here 
on  this  side  is  a doctor  just  back  from  study  in  Japan 
and  showing  Japanese  influence  in  his  clothes  and 
thoughts.  This  keen-eyed  man  in  the  awagger  Chinese 
clothes  is  an  official.  Yonder  in  the  corner  is  a Buddhist 
scholar  of  the  old  type.  In  front  is  an  attractive  man 
interested  in  Christianity,  but  unwilling  to  definitely 
commit  himself,  as  such  a step  would  mean  the  loss  of 
a fortune.  By  the  door  is  one  of  the  pastors,  a graduate 
from  one  of  the  famous  American  theology  schools. 
On  this  side  is  a returned  student  from  Germany.  There 
is  a Harvard  man  and  other  graduates  of  American 
colleges.  Students,  merchants,  railroad  officials  and 
others  compose  the  men’s  side  of  the  room.  The  women 
are  of  various  types.  All  are  still  a bit  shy  of  talking 
out  in  the  discussions,  but  at  other  times  they  show  signs 
of  that  leadership  that  in  a few  years  will  surprise  the 
world.  They  are  for  the  most  part  well  poised,  clear 
thinking  individuals  who  will  have  a great  influence 
not  only  upon  China,  but  upon  other  countries  as  well. 
They  discuss  the  group  meeting  in  their  various 
churches,  the  lack  of  amusements  for  the  Chinese 
women,  committee  meetings  for  social  service  work, 
subscription  lists  for  the  orphanage,  cake  making,  types 
of  stoves,  baby  diets,  the  latest  engagement  especially 
exciting  because  the  lady  in  question  is  supposed  to  sub- 
scribe for  a newspaper,  for  HERSELF.  So  the  chat- 
ting goes  on  much  the  same  subjects  that  one  would  find 
at  home. 

The  discussion  of  the  evening  is  to  be  on  the  differ- 
ences between  Buddhism  and  Christianity.  Every 
point  made  the  old  Buddhist  scholar  contests.  When 
the  discussion  seems  to  have  reached  a dead  lock  the 


35 


theologically  trained  students  make  a few  remarks  that 
seem  to  settle  the  matter.  Finally  the  old  scholar  speaks 
— “There  is  really  no  difference  between  the  two  re- 
ligions. Christianity,  however,  seems  to  make  a man 
lead  a better  life  and  to  more  completely  change  him. 
Otherwise  there  is  REALLY  no  difference.”  In  vain 
the  various  people  try  to  make  him  see  that  he  has  ad- 
mitted the  point  but  he  shakes  his  head  and  repeats 
“No  difference.” 

The  social  side  of  the  program  is  hailed  with  great 
delight.  Have  you  ever  felt  a condescending  pity  for 
those  benighted  individuals  who  play  Buzz,  Bright 
Idea  and  kindred  games?  I have,  but  now  I have  be- 
come their  staunch  patron.  The  first  time  a Chinese 
gentleman  who  is  willing  to  admit  his  importance  plays 
one  of  these  games,  his  psychological  processes,  as 
shown  in  his  usually  immobile  face,  are  laughable. 
When  the  first  person  who  says  seven  or  some  other 
forbidden  number  instead  of  Buzz,  and  as  penalty  has 
to  sit  on  the  floor,  this  proper  gentleman  is  shocked. 
Indeed  in  his  contemplation  of  such  a breach  of  etiquette 
he  loses  count  and  forgets  to  say  “Buzz.”  Someone 
tells  him  to  sit  on  the  floor.  In  a dazed  manner  he  rises, 
starts  to  sit  but  half  way  down  recollects  that  no  Chi- 
nese gentleman  should  behave  in  such  a fashion.  He 
starts  to  rise.  Some  one  again  says,  “You  had  better  sit 
down.”  This  time  the  Sien  Sen  sits.  Soon  his  hat  is  on 
one  side,  his  silken  shirts  are  in  disorder  and  he  is  play- 
ing as  the  rest.  The  next  week  he  plays  with  greater 
zest  and  soon  is  thinking  up  other  games.  A concession 
is  made  for  the  women.  They  don’t  have  to  sit  on  the 
floor  but  on  benches.  Otherwise,  they  and  the  men 
share  equally. 

The  hostess  and — yes — really  her  husband  are  pass- 
ing around  the  refreshments.  You  sample  delicious 
fudge,  pieces  of  lovely  cake,  hot  butterd  biscuits  and 
Chinese  sweets.  When  you  remark  on  the  splendid  re- 


freshments,  the  host  proudly  says,  “My  wife  really  does 
cook  foreign  things  well.  A few  months  ago  she  had 
never  made  a foreign  thing.”  You  in  America  don’t 
realize  what  such  a statement  as  this  means,  but  we  here 
in  China  appreciate  its  significance,  and  dream  rosy 
dreams  of  the  future.  Easter  musicc,  Christmas  plays, 
trips  to  the  hills  with  a picnic,  a free  fine  friendship, 
good  time  of  men  and  their  wives  and  friends  are  only 
a few  things  that  have  and  are  the  outcome  of  the  con- 
tacts made  in  this  club.  Christians  regardless  of  their 
particular  churches,  non-christians  as  well  as  the  for- 
eign missionaries  are  finding  this  Fellowship  Club  a 
veritable  oasis.  May  similar  clubs  with  their  oppor- 
tunities for  contacts  spring  up  throughout  China! 


37 


CHINA 


One-fourth  of  the  women  of  the  world  are  Chinese,  200,000,000 
women — 93  women  doctors.  70  babies  in  every  100  die. 

There  are  7 times  as  many  physicians  in  New  York  City  as  there 
are  medical  missionaries  in  all  the  non-Christian  world. 

300.000  people  in  Canton  make  their  homes  on  small  boats. 

150.000  women  work  in  factories. 


Maximum  wage  for  women 40c  per  day 

Maximum  wage  for  girls 15c  per  day 


The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  China 
Asso- 

Fields  ciations  Members  Secretaries 

China  has...  5 81  3889  44  American,  17  Chinese 

U.  S.  A.  has.  11  1309  373599  2042 

In  China — less  than  one  secretary  to  one  Association. 

In  U.  S.  A. — almost  two  secretaries  to  one  Association. 

The  Chinese  Woman’s  Triangle. 


She  wants. 


She  has. 


38 


REFERENCE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ON  CHINA 


New  Life  Currents  in  China Mary  Ninde  Gamewell 

Missionary  Education  Movement  in  1919. 

A book  written  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  present  task  of  the 
missionary  is  to  develope  a Chinese  church  which  will  assume  the 
burden  of  evangelizing  the  land. 

The  Changing  Chinese  Edward  Alsworth  Ross 

The  Century  Company,  1911. 

Impressions  of  modern  China  showing  the  conflict  of  Oriental  and 
Occidental  civilizations. 

The  Development  of  China Latourette 

Houghton,  Mifflin  & Company,  1917. 

A book  giving  the  essential  facts  of  Chinese  history  as  a background 
for  the  study  of  present  day  problems  in  China. 

The  Gateway  to  China Mary  Ninde  Gametuell 

Fleming  Revell  Company,  N.  Y.,  1916. 

A delightful  picture  of  Shanghai  which  portrays  the  fascination  of 
this  Oriental  City. 

Ancient  Peoples  at  New  Tasks  Willard  Price 

Missionary  Education  Movement. 

Chapter  III  tells  of  economic  conditions  in  China  and  of  the  exten- 
sive Industrial  Mission  Movement  which  is  taking  its  place  as  a 
part  of  the  Gospel. 

China — An  Interpretation Bishop  Bashford  X 

Methodist  Book  Concern. 

A first  hand  study  of  Chinese  history  and  an  interpretation  of  the 
principles  underlying  the  ancient  Chinese  civilization,  and  of  the 
effect  of  Western  ideas  and  ideals. 

The  Uplift  of  China Arthur  H.  Smith 

Methodist  Book  Concern. 

A condensed  but  comprehensive  account  of  mission  work. 

Chinese  Characteristics  Arthur  Smith 

Some  critics  call  this  the  book  on  the  Chinese  that  is  before  the  public. 


39 


INDIA  TODAY 
By  Fred  B.  Fisher 

The  swift-moving  currents  of  modern  life  are  no- 
where deeper  or  more  portentous  than  in  the  Indian 
Empire.  It  matters  not  by  what  name  you  call  it — rena- 
issance, reformation,  revolution,  reconstruction — there 
is  a potent  movement  at  work  in  India  today.  The  war 
has  helped  to  precipitate  a molding  of  the  national 
mind.  This  must  be  the  inevitable  outcome  of  a crisis 
which  has  suddenly  thrown  together  in  brotherly  rela- 
tionships such  divergent  groups  as  Hindu,  Moslem, 
Buddhist,  Sikh,  Christian,  Anglo-Indian  and  Colonist. 

The  evidences  of  a great  social  awakening  are  legion, 
but  none  more  far-reaching  than  the  demand  for  the 
advancement  and  education  of  women.  Ancient  Hin- 
duism regarded  womanhood  with  bitter  contempt  and 
suspicion.  The  sacred  books  declared  that  “to  educate 
a woman  would  be  like  feeding  a serpent  milk;  she 
would  but  turn  her  education  into  poison.”  Over 
against  this  ancient  superstition  regarding  woman,  and 
in  contrast  to  the  haughty  tyranny  of  orthodox  Hindu- 
ism, reform  conferences  by  the  score  are  adopting 
sweeping  resolutions. 

In  a great  congress  of  Hindus,  held  in  the  Punjab, 
three  out  of  four  major  resolutions  referred  to  the  con- 
dition of  women:  (a)  Prohibition  of  early  marriage; 
(b)  Education  of  women;  (c)  Relief  of  widows  and 
orphans.  In  another  great  conference  held  in  Bombay, 
the  following  declaration  was  made:  “We  are  strongly 
of  the  opinion  that  every  effort  should  be  made  to  pro- 
mote and  expand  the  education  of  women — elementary, 
secondary  and  higher.” 

The  root  of  all  social  progress  in  any  country  lies  in 
the  condition  of  womanhood.  Miss  Eleanor  McDou- 
gall  has  issued  a trenchant  challenge:  “India  needs,  as 
never  before,  a supply  of  native  women  trained  to  habits 

40 


of  independent  thought  and  serious  study.  The  college 
women  of  India,  whose  influence  will  be  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  their  numbers,  must  be  trained  by  Chris- 
tians” This  is  a call  to  Occidental  Christian  woman- 
hood to  provide  much  of  the  leadership  necessary  at 
this  hour  to  lift  the  womanhood  of  India  into  a place 
of  commanding  influence  in  the  nation  and  in  the  home 

Fred  B.  Fish  er. 


REPORT 

Martha  C.  W healdon,  Poona,  India,  July,  IQIQ 

India  has  always  been  characterized  as  the  land  of 
unrest.  More  than  ever  is  this  true  just  now.  After  two 
years’  absence  from  the  country,  one  feels  the  difference 
in  spirit  and  seeks  to  trace  the  changes  and  determine 
their  cause. 

We  must  recognize  that  the  same  burdens  that  the 
world  has  been  under  have  come  in  full  force  to  India. 
Here  has  not  been  the  Vision  of  Hope  or  the  consola- 
tion of  Faith  to  make  strong  the  heart  or  to  shield  from 
the  terror  of  despair. 

You  have  read  and  heard  of  the  part  that  India,  as  a 
loyal  member  of  the  British  Empire,  has  taken  at  the 
front.  Only  time  will  tell  that  story  as  is  true  of  all  na- 
tions whose  subjects  gave  of  life  at  the  front  in  service. 
Though  it  was  a very  small  fraction  of  India’s  men  who 
left  India,  yet  the  military  life  which  has  here  touched 
the  life  of  the  millions  in  various  ways,  has  brought  a 
new  interpretation  to  the  meaning  of  patriotism  and 
has  stirred  a National  consciousness  which  has  never 
been  articulate  before.  Sir  Sinha,  an  Indian  of  learn- 
ing, has  been  given  a seat  in  Parliament  overseas.  This 
is  the  first  Indian  to  receive  this  privilege.  There  is  a 
movement  for  “woman  suffrage”  though  but  few  wom- 
en know  what  this  means  or  have  any  desire  for  a voice 
in  government.  One  hears  much  of  “Home  Rule.” 

Influenza  probably  took  a heavier  toll  in  India  than 
in  any  other  land.  There  were  six  million  deaths. 
More  than  ever  occurred  in  any  one  year  from  cholera 
or  plague  combined!  Whole  villages  were  wiped  out 
with  no  one  to  come  to  their  relief. 

Over  a wide  section  the  rains  failed  last  year  and 
the  famine  has  caused  much  suffering  and  death.  The 
Government  has  come  to  the  relief  of  those  who  were 
without  food  by  providing  work  to  earn  their  food,  yet 

42 


so  many  were  reduced  by  influenza  and  starvation  that 
they  had  not  strength  to  work  and  relief  came  too  late. 
Cattle  have  fallen  by  the  thousands.  When  the  family 
milk  supply  and  the  means  of  livelihood  depended  up- 
on the  one  bullock  and  there  was  not  food  to  keep  it 
alive,  the  whole  family  was  in  despair.  Often  the  owner 
waited  until  too  late  to  take  the  animals  to  relief  sta- 
tions. The  Agricultural  Department  has  demonstrat- 
ed the  value  of  the  cactus  for  fodder.  True  to  the  re- 
ticence of  the  Indian  to  do  other  than  his  anccestors,  he 
pleads  with  the  expert  who  prepares  the  cacti  to  save 
his  precious  bullock,  “O,  Sahib,  give  but  two  spears  of 
grass,  I pray  you,  but  not  that  to  my  beloved.”  In  spite 
of  his  anxiety  the  animal  soon  grows  fat.  Cacti  is  one  of 
the  plentiful  products  of  India  and  is  chiefly  cultivated 
along  the  railroad  track  as  a fence, — a hidden  blessing 
for  just  this  time  of  need. 

The  life-giving  rain  has  come  at  last.  There  has  been 
great  anxiety  over  the  delay.  Of  the  eight  propicious 
signs  usually  trusted,  six  failed.  God  has  heard  the 
prayer  for  His  Mercy  and  this  week  we  have  had 
enough  to  promise  that  the  seed  will  spring  up.  The 
“latter  rains”  are  expected  in  August  and  very  much 
depends  upon  them  just  as  in  the  days  of  Moses. 

Through  your  representatives  in  India  for  the  past 
years,  you  have  heard  much  of  Bombay  and  have  been 
asked  to  think  and  pray  for  the  work  there  in  particu- 
lar. Now,  if  you  have  not  heard  it  already,  I have  a 
surprise  for  you.  It  comes  in  the  form  of  a challenge 
here  to  us  and  we  have  found  that  you  do  not  fail  us 
under  those  circumstances  ever.  Miss  Withers  has  just 
i begun  her  new  work  as  Indian  N ational  T raveling  Sec- 
retary as  evangelistic  worker.  You  will  be  glad  of  this 
and  as  she  will  have  all  India  for  her  parish,  you  see 
the  challenge  for  your  larger  faith. 

The  term  “Field  Work”  needs  no  explanation — you 
know  this  plan  of  organization  well.  It  is  scarcely  start- 

43 


ed  in  India.  There  are  to  be  nine  districts  or  fields.  In 
the  absence  of  workers  or  field  secretaries,  the  two 
fields  now  organized  are  being  carried  on  by  volunteer 
workers  and  the  help  the  local  secretary  can  give. 

The  field  I want  you  to  know  and  feel  you  have  a 
part  in  is  called  the  “Western  India  District.”  It  is  to 
belong  to  you  by  adoption  and  you  may  think  of  me  as 
the  connecting  link.  As  “National  Field  Secretary,” 
my  place  of  residence  is  Poona,  a city  of  about  200,000 
population,  four  hours  south  of  Bombay.  Look  on  your 
map  for  Karachi,  a city  on  the  Arabian  sea  coast  in  the 
very  northwestern  part  of  India.  This  is  the  N.  W. 
limit  of  the  district.  Belgaum,  south  of  Bombay  16 
hours  by  rail,  is  the  southern  limit.  Later,  when  I visit 
the  ten  Associations  now  organized  in  the  district,  it 
will  be  a pleasure  to  take  you  on  tour.  Before  this  tour 
can  take  place,  we  plan  to  hold  a conference  in  the 
most  central  place  we  can  find.  The  representatives  of 
each  Association  will  spend  at  least  three  days  together 
and  we  hope  that  so  much  inspiration  will  be  given  that 
the  most  isolated  and  alone  Association  will  find  new 
purpose  and  joy  in  service  for  the  Master.  You  will 
pray  for  us.  The  dates  are  now  set  for  November  20-25. 

Poona  is  my  parish  just  at  hand,  so  I must  tell  you 
about  it.  It  is  one  of  the  political  centers  of  India. 
There  are  cantonments  and  40,000  men  have  been  sta- 
tioned here  at  various  times  during  the  past  four  years. 
This  is  the  seat  of  government  during  the  rains — June 
to  September.  By  this  we  mean  that  the  Governor,  his 
household  and  staff,  with  many  of  high  rank  of  the 
Capitol,  Bombay,  are  here  in  residence.  Presidency  is 
a political  division  which  corresponds  with  a State  at 
home.  This  is  “Bombay  Presidency.”  The  new  Gov- 
ernor is  Lord  Lloyd,  and  it  is  with  joyful  anticipation 
that  we  find  Lady  Lloyd  is  a woman  who  is  definitely 
interested  in  Christian  work.  She  has  said  she  will  be 
president  of  the  Bombay  Y.  W.  C.  A. 


Poona  Association  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  India.  It 
has  now  a membership  of  40,  and  I am  sorry  to  say  that 
there  are  but  four  girls  on  the  list.  The  average  age  of 
the  membership  is  45  and  they  have  not  been  able  to 
make  the  girls  welcome.  The  past  weeks  have  been 
spent  in  finding  girls. 

There  is  a little  brick  building,  the  property  of  the 
Association,  used  for  all  purposes.  It  has  one  room, 
15x50.  Its  walls  are  pale  blue,  the  eight  windows  are 
large  and  the  woodwork  is  painted  black.  The  floor  is 
uneven  and  covered  with  hemp  carpet.  The  front  half 
of  the  room  is  almost  blocked  with  willow  chairs  filled 
with  huge  cushions.  The  walls  are  lined  with  huge 
bookcases  filled  with  old  discarded  books,  most  of  them 
are  presented,  by  well-intentioned,  retiring  ministers 
from  their  theological  libraries.  There  are  many  vol- 
umes of  bound  magazines,  “The  Sunday  at  Home” 
chiefly.  The  building  is  located  on  the  main  street, 
has  no  grounds,  and  though  it  can  serve  as  a center,  it 
badly  needs  some  attractive  features. 

Last  December  a missionary  who  has  been  for  years 
in  Poona  associated  with  the  Scotch  Church  Mission, 
visited  one  of  our  holiday  rest  homes.  While  there,  she 
died.  When  her  will  was  examined,  she  had  left  her 
home  in  Poona  to  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  to  be  used  as  a home 
for  girls.  The  papers  are  not  yet  complete,  but  soon 
this  house  will  come  into  our  possession.  It  will  ac- 
commodate 10  persons.  The  house  is  in  fairly  good  con- 
dition, will  need  all  furniture  and  comforts.  It  is  lo- 
cated very  nicely  for  a restful  home,  but  is  so  far  out  of 
the  city  that  it  is  not  practical  as  a social  center,  which 
is  most  needed  now. 

For  the  past  fourteen  years  Bombay  has  been  the 
residence  of  the  national  secretaries  and  the  national 
headquarters.  Two  months  ago,  it  was  decided  that  it 
was  best  to  move  to  Calcutta.  As  India  has  no  National 
buildings,  this  is  not  serious.  The  impartiality  of  such 

45 


a body  should  insure  their  help  to  all  local  Associa- 
tions alike,  but  personally  I feel  that  a prop  has  been 
removed.  It  is  as  though  your  Field  Office  has  been 
taken  to  a city  four  days  away  by  post,  when  you  had 
always  had  it  in  the  same  street.  There  are  reasons  to 
expect  it  to  be  for  the  best  good  and  increased  strength 
in  Calcutta. 


THE  WOMAN  OF  MODERN  INDIA 

In  order  to  understand  the  woman  of  Modern  India 
and  the  problems  attendant  upon  the  formation  of  what 
may  rightly  be  called  a “Woman’s  Movement,”  it  is 
necessary  to  look  first  at  the  background  of  custom  and 
tradition  from  which  she  is  emerging.  And  may  we 
try  to  remember  that  in  the  essential  and  fundamental 
things  of  the  mind  and  spirit  there  are  few  differences 
between  her  and  us?  Read  some  of  the  poems  of  Sir 
Rabindranath  Tagore  or  Mrs.  Naidu  to  see  how  the 
spirit  of  play  and  love  of  games  is  the  same  in  the  little 
children,  how  home  is  honored  as  the  source  of  influ- 
ences that  can  mould  the  characters  of  those  within  it, 
how  the  ideal  of  devotion  and  sacrificial  love  pertains 
to  all  relationships  between  friend  and  friend,  parents 
and  children,  husband  and  wife.  Or  re-read  that  beau- 
tiful hymn  written  by  an  Indian  Christian  woman,  “In 
the  Secret  of  His  Presence  How  My  Soul  Delights  to 
Hide”  and  ask  yourself  if  we  must  not  have  much  in 
common  with  one  who  can  voice  so  perfectly  our  soul’s 
yearnings.  Any  difference  we  shall  find  are  external 
and  due  to  circumstances,  not  to  any  inherent  differ- 
ence in  the  men,  women,  and  children  as  human  beings. 

To  what  causes  can  we  trace  the  repression  and  op- 
pression from  which  the  Indian  woman  is  only  just 
consider  the  country  itself.  India,  a vast  continent 
beginning  to  receive  her  emancipation?  First,  we  must 
rather  than  a country,  for  many  centuries  divided  by 
one  hundred  and  forty-seven  distinct  languages,  by  two 
thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  separate 
castes,  by  several  religions  existing  side  by  side,  in  con- 
stant conflict  and  mutual  hatred  and  distrust,  by  great 
spacial  distances  and  by  great  extremes  of  climate.  A 
heterogenous  population  of  more  than  three  hundred 
millions  of  people  can  hardly  achieve  unity  under  such 
conditions  and  without  unity  any  appreciable  progress 
is  impossible.  The  women  have  suffered  most,  for  caste 

47 


regulations  and  social  practices  have  drawn  about  them 
more  and  more  tightly  the  shackles  of  illiteracy  and 
superstition,  of  confinement  to  the  home  and  almost 
unalleviated  slavery  to  its  domestic  demands.  The  Law 
of  Manu  says,  “Day  and  night  must  women  be  kept  in 
dependence  by  the  male  members  of  the  family;  they 
are  never  fit  for  independence.”  Caste  originated  in 
“race  feeling,”  and  was  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  in- 
vading Aryan  at  self-protection  against  the  dark- 
skinned  aboriginal;  and  the  “Pardah”  system  of  com- 
plete seclusion  for  women  can  be  traced  to  a desire  to 
protect  them;  but  both  customs  rest  on  false  premises 
and  the  results  have  been  tragic. 

We  find  in  Hinduism,  the  prevailing  religion  of  the 
country,  a scond  cause.  It  has  been  truly  said  that 
Hinduism  has  done  worse  for  its  women  than  any  other 
religion  in  the  world.  One  would  not  wish  to  be  un- 
fair or  uncharitable,  but  the  universal  test  must  always 
be,  “By  their  fruits  shall  ye  know  them.”  The  fruits 
of  early  marriage  for  girls,  of  an  iniquitous  dowry  sys- 
tem, of  enforced  widowhood,  of  Temple  girls  (i.  e.  girls 
being“dedicated”to  the  temples  and  Gods, which  means 
in  reality  a life  of  prostitution  carried  on  in  the  name 
of  religion),  of  seclusion  and  illiteracy  and  consequent 
superstition  seem  to  be  directly  traceable  to  Hinduism. 
Today  only  one  per  cent,  of  the  women  in  India  is  liter- 
ate, and  the  last  census  (1911)  revealed  that  there  were 
1,014  widows  under  one  year  of  age,  17,700  under  five 
years,  and  335,000  under  fifteen  years.  A widow  is 
doomed  to  a life  of  austerity  and  drudgery  because  of 
the  supposed  sin  for  which  widowhood  is  only  a just 
punishment.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  in  olden  days,  be- 
fore it  was  forbidden  by  the  British  Government,  the 
practice  of  “Sati,”  of  burning  oneself  on  the  husband’s 
funeral  pyre,  was  welcomed  as  a way  of  blessed  relief? 

Such  is  life  in  Old  India — a glimpse  into  conditions 
as  they  have  prevailed.  We  may  fairly  ask  what  con- 


ditions  prevail  today.  Is  India  standing  still,  while  all 
the  world  around  her  seethes  with  unrest  and  works 
its  way  through  to  new  achievements  of  progress  and 
democracy?  Far  from  it.  A new  spirit  of  Nationalism 
is  abroad  ; on  every  side  one  hears  the  cry  “Home  Rule.” 
There  is  a party  of  agitators  who  have  not  learned  the 
price  that  must  be  paid  for  independence,  and  to  com- 
ply with  their  demands  for  immediate  Home  Rule 
would  be  suicidal.  The  more  serious,  thinking  leaders, 
both  Indian  and  British,  realize  that  a people  still 
ninety  per  cent,  illiterate,  still  torn  asunder  by  the  di- 
visions of  caste  and  conflicting  religions,  is  not  ready 
for  home  rule.  A long  road  of  preparation  and  patient 
adjustment  stretches  ahead.  New  ideals  of  unselfishness 
and  justice  and  brotherhood  must  be  attained,  and  new 
lessons  of  humble,  sacrificial  service  must  be  learned. 
So  we  find  in  Madras,  for  example,  a Social  Service 
League,  composed  of  men  and  women,  Indians  and 
non-Indians,  Christians  and  non-Christians,  banded  to- 
gether to  study  and  relieve  the  needs  of  their  city.  In 
the  words  of  one  of  their  leaders,  “It  is  necessary  to 
get  rid  of  five  existing  devils,  all  beginning  with  ‘D,’ 
debt,  disease,  darknss,  drink  and  dirt.”  A comprehen- 
sive program!  and  one  which  cuts  directly  across  the 
old  regulations  of  caste,  whereby  man  was  not  his  broth- 
er’s keeper.  Nor  does  such  a program  leave  room  for 
religious  indifference,  for  the  evils  mentioned  are  no 
respector  of  class,  or  creed. 

The  part  that  women  must  play  in  this  new  awak- 
ening and  in  the  striving  toward  an  equal  chance  for 
every  individual  and  a better  life  for  the  Nation,  is  un- 
mistakable. A leading  Hindu  man  writes,  “Mere  talk 
of  Nationalism  does  not  produce  a Nation.  It  should 
be  obvious  to  every  man  in  India  that  the  future  of  the 
country  depends  upon  its  motherhood.”  In  contrast  to 
the  life  of  the  average  Indian  woman  under  the  old 
regime  I should  like  to  introduce  you  to  a few  scenes 

49 


which  are  typical  of  the  new  day.  In  one  of  the  great 
residence  cities  we  find  22,000  women  employed  in  fac- 
tories; in  a Ladies’  Recreation  Club  there  are  women 
and  girls  meeting  each  other  easily  and  gladly,  in  spite 
of  difference  in  caste  and  creed,  playing  tennis  and 
badminton,  and  also  learning  to  serve,  as  they  study  * 

first  aid  and  home  nursing,  and  sew  and  knit  for  a few  * 

of  the  1,400,000  Indian  men  who  went  to  the  front!  In 
commercial  classes  we  find  Indian  and  Anglo-Indian 
young  women  learning  to  be  typists,  stenographers  and 
bookkeepers;  in  hospitals  we  find  them  training  as 
nurses,  and  in  many  different  kinds  of  schools  they  are 
fitting  themselves  to  become  teachers,  doctors  and  even 
lawyers ; we  see  one  young  woman  doctor  giving  all  her 
time  to  district  visiting  and  the  work  of  a thoroughly 
up-to-date  “Baby  Saving  Scheme”  in  connection  with 
the  Government  Maternity  Hospital;  in  a Woman’s 
College  we  find  a debating  society,  a dramatic  club,  a 
musical  association,  and  organized  athletics  exactly  as 
we  should  expect  to  find  them  in  any  college  in  this 
land;  we  can  subscribe  to  an  “Indian  Ladies’  Maga- 
zine” printed  in  English  and  managed  and  edited  by 
Indian  Women;  at  a convocation  of  one  large  Univer- 
sity we  see  twenty-two  women  in  caps  and  gowns  re- 
ceiving their  degrees  with  all  the  dignity  and  all  the 
high  hopes  of  any  young  graduates;  and  among  the 
married  women  (and  the  majority  of  India’s  women 
still  consider  marriage  and  home  making  the  great  ob- 
ject of  life)  we  find  an  ever-increasing  per  cent,  who  are 
able  to  be  intelligent  wives  and  mothers,  real  compan- 
ions to  all  the  members  of  their  housholds,  and  dispen- 
sors  to  the  less  fortunate  ones  around  them  of  the  light  ( 
and  freedom  which  they  have  received. 

Can  you  not  feel  that  the  ideals  and  ambitions  and 
capacities  of  the  women  of  India  are  all  like  our  own? 

The  problems  which  must  accompany  this  period  of 
transition,  when  a new  era  is  being  inaugurated  and  the 

50 


women  are  stepping  forth  into  new  liberties,  are  prob- 
lems which  we  can  help  them  solve.  As  yet  they  have 
not  been  able  to  develop  an  adequate  number  of  native 
leaders,  and  we  are  needed  as  doctors  and  nurses  and 
teachers  and  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association 
Secretaries  to  guide  them  in  their  new  path  and  to  help 
train  leaders.  Their  groping  days  will  soon  be  over  and 
we  can  help  them  now  to  establish  a Christian  standard 
of  leadership.  The  Indian  women  have  a gentleness 
and  a power  for  devotion  and  a capacity  for  faithful  un- 
selfish service  which  it  is  our  privilege  to  help  capture 
for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  May  I tell  you  in  the  words 
of  one  of  their  own  women,  Miss  Elizabeth  Zachariah, 
now  student  secretary  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  Madras, 
what  they  want  from  us? 

1.  “To  help  us  work  up  the  feeling  of  National- 
ism along  right  lines,  encouraging  it  and  rousing  at 
the  same  time  an  International  consciousness,  that 
we  may  not  develop  along  selfish  and  self-centered 
lines  but  may  feel  ourselves  part  of  a whole,  a 
whole  that  could  not  be  complete  without  us,  as  we 
could  not  develop  into  the  fullest  life  without  the 
whole. 

2.  “To  remember  that  we  are  in  a land  with  a 
glorious  past,  of  rich  and  rare  traditions,  and  that 
the  great  seeking  after  Truth  and  God  that  has 
been  going  on  forever,  however  wrong  and  misdi- 
rected and  blind  and  narrow,  is  based  on  sound 
principles,  and  on  these  principles  we  must  build  a 
new  structure  on  Christian  lines,  firmer  and 
Broader. 

3.  “It  is  not  a matter  of  organization  or  institu- 
tions or  heavy  machinery,  but  of  personal  rela- 
tionships. Give  us  unreservedly  of  your  love  and 
you  will  have  ours.  You  set  us  the  standard,  then, 

51 


let  us  see  the  ideal  in  you,  the  love  of  God  in  Christ, 
the  love  and  friendship  of  Christ  in  man.  Per- 
sonal relationship  is  the  one  bond  that  links  up  the 
whole  world  when  all  else  fails,  we  feel  we  want 
you,  not  for  what  you  bring  us,  but  for  yourselves.” 

Margaret  Melcher,  Sept.,  IQIQ^ 


QUOTATIONS  ABOUT  INDIA 

The  Source  of  Caste 

“The  religion  rigidly  prescribes  for  the  Brahman 
those  who  may  sit  with  him,  and  no  woman,  even  his 
own  wife  nor  any  member  of  any  other  caste  may  enter 
that  charmed  circle.” 

Stoicism 

“Nature  with  her  sudden  desolating  visitation  of  pes- 
tilence and  famine  sweeping  away  helpless  myriads  in  a 
few  months,  has  certainly  helped  to  breed  in  the  Indian 
that  calm  dignity  of  patience  which  to  the  end  of  the 
chapter  will  be  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  all  who 
know.” 

Inferior  Females 

“One  of  the  monster  evils  that  disfigures  India  is  the 
degradation  of  women.  Spiritually,  she  belongs  to  a 
lower  order  of  beings.  It  is  because  of  a sin  in  a former 
life  that  she  has  been  born  a woman.” 

Slums 

“There  is  not  much  difference  between  the  slums  of 
Birmingham,  England,  and  the  slums  of  Calcutta.” 

Behind  the  Purdah 

“The  great  majority  of  women  converts  have  con- 
fessed Christ  as  the  result  of  evangelistic  and  educa- 
tional work  within  the  zenanas”  (harem). 

A Common  Task 

“No  longer  can  the  two  motives  of  Business  Man  and 
Missionary  be  considered  exclusive  of,  or  opposed  to 
each  other.  Theirs  is  a common  task — to  develop  the 
latent  resources — physical,  intellectual  and  moral — of 
backward  people,  without  robbing  them  of  anything 
or  any  quality  essential  to  the  preservation  of  their  in- 
dependent national  life.” 


53 


Indian  and  Indian 

“The  word  Indian  is  too  loose  a term  to  apply  to  the 
women  of  India.  For  example,  the  Parsee  woman,  al- 
though she  represents  an  infinitesimal  fraction  of  In- 
dian sisterhood  has  long  held  a position  quite  equal  to 
that  of  the  Filipino  woman.  Five  hundred  women  at- 
tended the  meeting  of  the  Hindu  National  Congress 
in  Lucknow  in  1917.  Two  hundred  led  the  singing, 
Mrs.  Naidau,  wife  of  the  Court  Physician  to  His  High- 
ness the  Nazam  of  Hyderadad,  a poetess  of  note, 
moved  the  resolution  asking  the  British  Government  to 
rescind  its  laws  forbidding  Indians  to  carry  firearms. 
India  a land  of  purdah  and  mystery,  and  yet — ” 

J ustice  for  the  Country’s  Sake 

“We  are,  and  always  shall  be,  called  a backward  race 
till  we  properly  appreciate  the  right  of  Indian  woman- 
hood. Till  we  admit  them  to  their  proper  position,  we 
deny  them  the  simple  rights  of  human  beings  and  how 
and  when  are  we  going  to  realize  that  they  are  veritable 
goddesses  on  earth?  It  is  no  use  our  bragging  about  our 
progress  while  the  Indian  woman  has  even  a single  com- 
plaint against  us  to  make  before  God!  Brother  readers, 
my  dear  co-religionists,  if  you  ever  wish  to  take  your 
proper  place  in  the  committee  of  nations,  stop  all  the 
shameful  injustice  you  are  dealing  out  to  your  noble  sis- 
ters. For  God’s  sake,  bestow  thought  upon  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Hindu  widows!  Your  indulging  in  political 
homilies,  your  assuming  airs  in  the  national  press,  your 
passing  before  the  world  as  wronged  innocents,  all  will 
be  of  no  avail.  There  is  justice  in  God’s  Kingdom!  And 
ye  shall  get  it  if  ye  deserve.  His  Kingdom  endureth 
forever  for  those  that  deserve  it.  May  you  try  your  best 
to  deserve  even  a particle  of  it.’’ — S.  S.  Rhat,  a Hindu 
Social  Reformer. 


54 


By-Products  of  Mission  W ork 

“The  indirect  influence  of  the  missionary  on  social 
evils  is  nowhere  more  marked  than  in  India.  There  are 
today  no  less  than  a dozen  active  agencies  for  social  re- 
form which,  while  not  Christian — some  of  them  being 
even  violently  anti-Christian— can  be  traced  directly  to 
the  influence  of  the  missionaries.” 

“The  editor  of  the  Indian  Social  Reformer,  K.  Na- 
tarajan  said:  ‘The  fear  of  the  missionary  has  been  the 
beginning  of  much  social  wisdom  in  India.  The  mis- 
sions have  interpreted  the  spiritual  side  of  Western 
civilization  to  us,  whereas  without  their  presence  we 
would  only  have  seen  its  material  expressions.’  ” 

“The  most  striking  political  development  is  shown  in 
increasing  participation  of  Moslems  in  the  nationalis- 
tic movement.  The  significance  of  this  new  spirit 
among  their  women  was  a manifesto  signed  by  an  edu- 
cated and  enlightened  woman  at  a Woman’s  Confer- 
ence in  Lahore  in  1918  protesting  against  the  evils  and 
hardships  of  polygamous  marriages.” 

“In  recent  years  many  hopeful  attempts  have  been 
made  to  modify  the  prospects  of  widows  in  India,  many 
of  them  starting  from  within  Hinduism.  These  take 
the  form  of  Hostels  for  Brahman  widows,  established 
in  increasing  numbers  throughout  the  country,  where 
a good  normal  teachers’  training  is  given.” 

Economic  Parasites 

India  has  5,200,000  Sadhus,  who  are  wandering 
priests.  They  never  work,  but  live  upon  the  gifts  (many 
of  them  from  women),  they  beg  from  the  superstitious 
people  of  the  poorest  classes.  If  a dollar  a month  sup- 
ports a man  in  India,  we  can  see  that  these  drones  are 
sapping  India  of  more  than  $60,000,000  a year  and 
making  no  contribution  to  the  economic  condition  of 
India.  It  would  be  good  for  India  to  lose  her  supersti- 
tions! 


Signs  of  the  Times 

Travancore  has  thrown  open  146  girls’  schools  to  all 
classes.  The  Seva  Sedan  Society  of  Bombay  reports  the 
free  education  of  fifty  widows,  medical  relief  of  1,500 
women  and  children,  the  training  of  60  Marathi  prim- 
ary school  teachers,  the  holding  of  literary  classes  for 
women,  provision  for  150  maternity  cases. 

Another  indication  of  improvement  is  that,  accord- 
ing to  one  report,  “More  women  comb  their  hair  and 
nearly  all  change  their  clothes  once  a week.  Three 
years  ago,  perhaps  a dozen  out  of  two  hundred  combed 
their  hair.  The  other  day  at  a Church  Service  more 
than  eighty  out  of  one  hundred  and  forty-five  had  their 
hair  combed.” 

There  is  an  ancient  proverb,  “There  be  many  sects 
in  India  but  upon  two  main  points  they  be  all  agreed, 
the  sacredness  of  the  cow  and  the  depravity  of  women.” 

Wrongs  against  Womanhood  (social) 

1st.  Marriage  in  infancy  to  a man  arbitrarily 
chosen. 

2nd.  Child  widowhood. 

3rd.  Married  life  beginning  at  10  to  12  years. 

4th.  Physical  injuries  of  premature  motherhood. 
25%  die;  25%  are  invalid  because  they  are 
mothers  too  early. 

5th.  Absolute  ignorance. 

6th.  Enforced  and  unnatural  seclusion. 

7th.  Polygamy  and  possible  infanticide. 

In  Industry 

Report  of  Indian  Factory  Labor  Commission — shows 
that  30%  to  40%  of  children  employed  half  time  in  jute 
factories  are  under  the  legal  age  of  nine;  that  25%  of 
the  young  on  full  time  are  under  fourteen  that  in  seven- 
teen of  the  twenty-nine  cotton  factories  outside  of  Bom- 
bay all  its  children  are  worked  as  adults. 

54 


Association  Inklings,  India  (south)  ( Myra  Withers, 

June  IQIQ ) 

One  of  our  Indian  girls,  Margaret,  has  come  out  most 
beautifully  in  her  examinations  and  wants  six  years  at 
Delhi  Medical  College.  She  is  20  and  can  enter  in 
| August.  She  is  a born  helper,  and  already  has  a fol- 
lowing of  high  caste  girls  and  she  has  won  girls  in  the 
non-Christian  school;  Margaret  was  changed  into  a 
real  Christian  at  our  school  girl  camp  three  years  ago. 
It  will  cost  about  $50  a year,  beyond  the  scholarship  she 
has,  to  make  a doctor  of  her. 

One  great  overweight  of  joy  came  late  in  April  when 
a Parsee,  Mr.  Karaka,  began  to  inquire  why  the  Chris- 
tian Association  did  so  much  for  Parsee  teachers,  etc., 
and  after  several  talks  in  his  office  and  mine,  he  asked 
me  to  help  him  present  this  kind  of  Christianity  to  his 
Parsee  community.  We  sent  out  personal  invitations 
and  used  his  opera  house — 400  came.  Our  school  girls 
sang  gospel  hymns  and  a beautiful  presentation  of  our 
gospel  was  given  by  an  Anglo-Indian,  Mr.  E.  W. 
Fritchley.  God’s  power  was  certainly  there  and  all 
went  away  asking  for  more.  Two  weeks  later  1000 
people  came,  all  non-Christians,  and  the  lectures  are 
going  on. 

Travellers’  Aid  Chairman  visited  ships  in  harbor  and 
assisted  nurses  there  and  in  town 

During  February  and  March  we  held  a series  of 
Bible  Lectures,  given  by  ministers  and  missionaries  in 
Madras,  Miss  Madge  followed  these  with  two  Bible 
classes. 

| Our  Sunday  night  song  services  have  been  unusually 
well  attended,  reaching  180. 

March  25 — The  cornerstone  was  laid,  in  the  new 
home  for  business  girls  in  Madras. 

February  24 — March  6 — Secretarial  Conference  was 
held  in  Bombay.  It  was  recommended  to  the  Indian 

57 


National  Committee  that  a Training  School  for  secre- 
taries be  established  in  India,  that  physical  education 
be  developed  and  such  a Training  School  be  established. 
It  was  determined  to  call  more  and  more  upon  the  na- 
tive resources  for  woman-leadership.  So  much  vision 
for  the  future  and  so  few  in  sight  to  do  the  work. 

Martha  Downey. 
Better  Health 

Graduates’  Union  (Calcutta)  has  translated  into  the 
vernacular  and  published  pamphlets  on  Typhoid 
Tuberculosis,  etc.  It  has  collected  material  for  a hand- 
book on  Social  Service  for  Indian  Women,  and  is  start- 
ing the  first  Baby  Clinics  in  Calcutta. 

Excelsior  ! 

Teachers’  Guilds  in  Calcutta  and  Bombay  aim  at 
raising  professional  ideals.  Courses  of  lectures  are 
given  and  in  Calcutta  a course  in  practical  work  had 
127  teachers  enrolled. 


58 


INDIA 


350.000. 000 

329.000. 000 

100.000. 000 

50.000. 000 

40.000. 000 

26.000. 000 


Inhabitants 

Illiterates 

Hunger  stricken 
Outcasts 
Secluded  women 
Widows 


India  has  the  highest  death  rate  in  the  world.  32  in  ever}'  1,000 
die  each  year. 

56%  of  the  infants  in  central  provinces  die  before  they  are  1 
year  old. 

Average  weekly  wage  for  women — 35  cents. 

One  woman  in  every  16  is  a prostitute. 

22  Hindu  women  mobilized  for  service. 

India  gave  $500,000,000. 

In  the  Great  War. 


The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  India. 

131  Associations  for  150,000,000  women. 

845  Members. 

167  Bible  classes. 

7 Camps  and  Conferences. 

14  U.  S.  A.  Secretaries. 

28  British  Secretaries. 


59 


REFERENCE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ON  INDIA 

India — Its  Life  and  Thought  Jones 

The  Macmillan  Co.,  1908. 

For  these  interested  in  understanding  better  the  conditions  and 
characteristics  of  the  people  of  India. 

Modern  India Curtis 

Fleming  Revell  Co.,  1905. 

A delightful,  readable  book  giving  vivid  pictures  of  the  India  of 
today. 

India  Awakening  Sherwood  Eddy 

Missionary  Education  Movement — U.  S.  and  Canada,  1911. 

A bird’s  eye  view  of  the  work  of  the  missionaries  in  India — with  a 
strong  plea  for  greater  effort  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  India. 

India  and  the  Future William  Archer 

Alfred  Knopp,  New  York,  1918. 

A sane,  unprejudiced  study  of  British  rule  in  India  and  of  the  Indian 
people  and  their  fitness  for  self  government. 

Eyes  of  Asia  Rudyard  Kipling 

Doubleday,  Page  & Co.,  1918. 

A contrast  between  East  and  West  is  pictured  in  these  letters  written 
by  an  Indian  soldier  serving  in  France,  to  his  family  in  India. 

Within  the  Purdah  S.  Armstrong  Hopkins 

Graphic  description  of  the  life  of  Hindu  women  as  seen  by  an  Amer- 
ican medical  woman. 

The  New  Era  in  Asia Sherwood  Eddy 

Methodist  Book  Concern. 

A survey  of  the  Far  Eastern  situation. 

Religions  of  India M.  E.  A.  Barth 

Methodist  Book  Concern. 

A resume  of  modern  study  of  the  religions  of  India. 

The  Silent  Revolution  Fisher  and  Williams 

Methodist  Book  Concern. 

The  Author  deals  with  the  agricultural  problem,  the  British  policy 
of  education,  the  position  of  women  in  India,  and  the  work  of  the 
missionaries. 

Among  India’s  Rajahs  and  Ryots Fraser 

Lippincott  Company. 


60 


The  author — a true  friend  of  India — gives  many  chapters  on  the  dif- 
ferent phases  of  Indian  life,  including  judgments  on  both  political 


and  missionary  affairs. 

Wrongs  of  Indian  Womanhood  Fuller 

Missionary  Education  Movement. 

Ancient  Peoples  at  New  Tasks Willard  Price 

Missionary  Education  Movement. 


Chapter  5 urges  Christian  missionary  work  in  India  through  the 
medium  of  agriculture. 


61 


SISTERS  IN  JAPAN 


What  is  your  mental  picture  of  a Japanese  girl?  Do 
you  think  of  her  as  typified  in  “Madame  Butterfly”  or 
as  one  of  the  toddling  chorus  in  the  burlesque  “Mi- 
kado”? Or  have  you  a fanciful  picture  of  her  dressed 
in  a brilliant  and  flowing  kimona  and  coquetting  over 
her  wide  spread  fan? 

How  I wish  you  could  see  her  as  we  have  seen  her 
for  the  past  few  months  and  could  learn  to  know  her 
graciousness,  her  sweetness,  her  eagerness  to  know 
about  other  girls  and  how  they  live.  Will  it  surprise 
you  to  know  that  after  all  they  have  many  points  in 
common  with  our  girls  here  in  America,  and  that  there 
are  quite  as  many  kinds  or  types  of  them  as  there  are 
among  the  girls  of  your  part  of  the  country? 

We  met  the  charming,  daintily  dressed  girls  of  the 
wealthier  class,  and  marvelled  at  their  wonderful  skill 
in  embroidery  and  flower  arrangement,  and  in  the  art 
of  “bonseki”  or  sand  tray  picturing — and  we  knew  that 
Japanese  girls  loved  beauty.  We  met  also,  groups  of 
school  girls  in  their  quaint  student  skirts,  and  listened  to 
their  singing,  and  watched  them  in  their  gym.  work 
and  in  their  play— and  knew  that  Japanese  girls  liked 
recreation.  Time  after  time  we  met  school  girls  clatter- 
ing along  on  their  way  to  visit  some  shrine  or  place  of 
interest,  and  as  we  listened  to  their  clatter  and  laughter 
we  knew  that  Japanese  girls  enjoyed  “hikes”  and  com- 
panionship. Many  times  we  watched  young  women 
and  girls  as  they  bowed  before  some  shrine — some  in- 
different, some  most  punctilious  in  their  form  of  wor- 
ship others  with  a real  agony  in  their  faces  as  they 
tugged  at  the  great  rope  before  the  shrine  to  call  the 
gods  attention — and  we  came  to  know  that  Japanese 
girls  in  many  instances  are  seeking  to  find  God. 

And  then — we  saw  girls  by  the  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands at  work  in  factories,  in  shops  and  offices,  in  tele- 

62 


< 


t 


phone  exchanges  and  in  Railway  Stations — and  we 
knew  that  Japanese  girls,  like  ours,  were  being  drawn 
from  homes  into  new  and  abnormal  surroundings,  there 
to  earn  a living,  or  an  existence.  Can  you  see  them  as 
they  come  to  the  great  cities  from  their  little  country 
villages?  Can  you  picture  to  yourself  their  ignorance 
of  city  life  and  of  business  customs — and  can  you  see 
the  grave  danger  that  confront  them  in  their  ignorance? 
All  their  lives  they  have  been  taught  two  things — to  be 
obedient,  especially  to  men,  and  to  believe  themselves 
greatly  inferior  to  men.  Can  you  see  how  that  makes 
them  an  easy  prey  to  unscrupulous  men,  Japanese  and 
foreign?  These  girls  need  our  world  sisterhood  in- 
finitely— they  need  it  as  a friend  who  understands,  a 
friend  who  counsels  wisely,  a friend  who  shelters  and 
protects. 

If  our  American  girls  need  decent  shelter,  help  in 
securing  the  right  employment,  coaching  in  preparation 
for  their  jobs,  wholesome  recreation;  if  they  need  char- 
acter standards  held  up  to  them,  and  if  they  need  to  find 
God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord — then,  in  a deeper 
more  pressing  way  the  need  of  these  J apanese  girls  calls 
to  us.  If  the  Association  can  help  American  girls  to 
find  their  best  selves,  and  can  bring  them  to  a knowl- 
edge of  Him  who  came  that  they  might  have  an  abund- 
ant life,  then  in  even  greater  measure  it  can  do  this  for 
these  Japanese  girls  who  today  face  danger  and  need. 
They  need  the  very  best  we  have,  and  they  are  worthy  of 
it.  What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it? 

Katherine  H.  Hawes,  IQIQ. 


JAPAN  TODAY 

Extract  from  Article  by  Sidney  Gulick,  IQ  IQ 

Japan  today  is  an  amazing  compound  of  the  East  and 
the  West.  Since  1868,  her  leading  citizens  have  been 
attempting  a new  feat  in  human  history — the  attempt 
to  combine  in  a single  national  life  the  best  elements  of 
the  two  great  streams  of  civilization,  that  of  the  Orient 
that  has  gone  through  a long  development  covering  at 
least  five  thousand  years,  with  that  of  the  Occident  cov- 
ering an  equally  long  period. 

He  who  would  understand  Japan  today  must  ever 
keep  in  mind  this  central  factor,  for  it  is  the  background 
and  vital  element  in  every  experience  and  every  phe- 
nomenon of  that  “land  of  many  contradictions.” 


OLD  JAPAN,  To  1868. 

NEW  JAPAN,  Since  1868. 

The  turning  point  was  the  definite  decision  of  the 
young  Emperor  and  his  cabinet  to  abandon  the  ancient 
policy  of  national  seclusion  which  had  been  in  opera- 
tion for  250  years  and  to  plunge  boldly  into  the  stream 
of  world  civilization. 

This  decision  was  announced  in  the  “Five  Articled 
Edict”  summarized  by  Dr.  Iyenaga  (Constitutional 
Development  of  Japan)  as  follows: 

“1.  A deliberative  assembly  should  be  formed,  and 
all  measures  be  decided  by  public  opinion. 

“2.  The  principles  of  social  and  political  economics 
should  be  diligently  studied  by  both  the  superior  and 
the  inferior  classes  of  our  people. 

“3.  Every  one  in  the  community  should  be  assisted 
to  persevere  in  carrying  out  his  will  for  good  purposes. 

“4.  All  the  old  absurd  usages  of  former  times  should 
be  disregarded,  and  the  impartiality  and  justice  dis- 


played  in  the  workings  of  nature  be  adopted  as  a basis 
of  action. 

“5.  Wisdom  and  ability  should  be  sought  after  in 
all  quarters  of  the  world  for  the  purpose  of  firmly  estab- 
lishing the  foundations  of  the  Empire.” 

* * * *-  % 

The  Emperor  Meiji  Tenno,  on  ascending  the  throne 
in  1868,  set  forth  in  his  first  edict  a policy  of  which  the 
essential  elements  were: 

1.  To  abandon  ancient  superstitions. 

2.  To  establish  deliberative  assemblies  and  be  gov- 
erned by  public  opinion. 

3.  To  learn  from  all  the  world. 

Japan’s  social,  industrial,  educational,  and  religious 
conditions  and  her  place  in  the  world  today  are  the 
result  of  remarkably  successful  efforts  to  put  the  prin- 
ciples of  that  edict  into  operation.  It  has  made  Japan 
a New  Japan,  profoundly  different  from  old  Japan. 

That  edict  is  a document  of  world  significance  for  it 
marks  the  vital  turning  point  in  the  relations  of  the  Far 
East  with  the  West,  and  establishes  a new  attitude  of 
mind  between  the  Yellow  and  White  races. 

By  that  decision,  so  successfully  carried  out  now  for 
more  than  half  a century,  J apan  has  not  only  placed  her- 
self among  the  “great  powers,”  but  has  inspired  800,- 
000,000  Asiatics  to  follow  in  her  footsteps,  if  not  under 
her  leadership. 

What  this  means  for  the  future  none  can  definitely 
forsee.  This,  however,  is  clear.  As  Japan  and  China 
have  discovered  that  they  cannot  carry  on  their  life  in 
haughty  disregard  of  the  nations  of  the  West,  so  the 
West  should  learn  that  it  cannot  carry  on  its  life  in 
haughty  disregard  of  the  nations  of  the  East. 

Both  East  and  West  should  now  make  haste  to  learn 
mutual  respect,  good  will,  and  genuine  cooperation. 
Otherwise  there  is  danger,  ominous  though  not  imme- 
diate, of  vast  world  tragedy. 

65 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  IN  NEW  JAPAN 

Japan’s  success  in  appropriating  so  much  from  west- 
ern lands  is  in  part  due  to  the  work  of  Protestant  Mis- 
sions. The  first  Protestant  Missionaries  landed  in 
Japan  in  1859.  Christianity  was  still  forbidden  by 
“banning”  boards.  Not  until  1873  were  these  pro- 
hibitions removed.  The  first  Christian  church  was  es- 
tablished in  1872  and  for  ten  years  Christianity  was 
more  or  less  persecuted,  though  not  officially. 

During  the  eighties  along  with  all  foreign  things  and 
customs  Christianity  was  in  high  favor.  So  rapidly 
were  Christians  multiplying  that  glowing  predictions 
were  made  during  that  decade  of  the  day  not  far  distant 
when  Japan  would  be  one  of  the  Christian  nations. 

But  international  complications  arose  in  the  nineties 
which  brought  on  a violent  anti-foreign  reaction.  Many 
Japanese,  moreover,  both  Christian  and  non-christian 
began  to  discover  how  un-christian  Christendom  was 
in  many  respects.  The  anti-foreign  reaction  became 
also  an  anti-christian  reaction.  And  for  more  than  a 
decade  the  new  converts  were  so  few  that  they  hardly 
made  up  for  the  many  defections. 

With  the  revision  of  the  treaties  and  the  straighten- 
ing out  of  some  of  the  international  tangles,  the  blind 
and  furious  anti-foreign  and  anti-christian  reaction 
gradually  passed  away.  Beginning  with  the  present 
century  there  has  been  a slow  and  steady  progress  in 
missionary  work  and  in  the  power  of  the  Japanese 
church.  The  latest  available  figures  (Report  of  Jan- 
uary, 1918)  show  the  facts  be  these: 

Protestant  Missionaries  (including  women)  1,074 
of  whom  322  were  ordained. 

Japanese  workers  3,011  of  whom  850  were  or- 
dained. 

Total  Church  members  101,571  of  whom  10,656 
were  adults  baptized  during  the  year  1917. 


Total  number  of  organized  churches,  1,038  of 
which  269  were  self-supporting. 

Japanese  contributions  for  evangelistic  work, 
$331,000. 

Contributions  from  Foreign  Mission  Boards  for 
evangelistic  work,  $173,000. 

Roman  Catholic  Christians,  75,000. 

Greek  Catholic  Christians,  36,000. 

A Japanese  pastor  recently  summed  up  the  contribu- 
tion of  Christian  Missions  to  Japan  in  the  following 
significant  statement. 

“What  has  Christianity  added  to  the  former  civiliza- 
tion of  Japan?  First  it  has  given  a new  idea  of  God. 
Formerly  the  idea  of  deity  meant  to  the  Japanese  the 
defied  forces  of  nature,  and  the  spirits  of  heroes.  Now 
the  people  have  assimilated  the  conception  of  God 
taught  by  Christianity.  Christianity  has  brought  about 
a higher  respect  for  man,  so  that  the  laws  recognize  the 
rights  of  individuals  and  everybody  thinks  of  the  soul 
as  immortal.  The  old  pessimistic  view  of  Buddhism 
that  the  world  is  only  evil  and  the  Oriental  view  of 
human  life  that  treats  it  as  a passing  jest,  have  been  dis- 
placed by  a hopeful  and  earnest  moral  conception  of 
the  world  as  introduced  by  Christianity.  Further,  the 
personality  of  Christ  is  the  most  valuable  gift  that 
Christianity  has  brought  to  Japan ; the  Bible  is  read  by 
high  and  low  more  than  any  other  book  and  is  a treas- 
ured possession  of  many  who  are  disciples  of  other  than 
the  Christian  religion;  Christianity  has  brought  to 
Japan  the  conception  of  a pure  home  founded  upon 
the  union  of  one  man  with  one  woman,  whereas  Con- 
fucianism did  not.  Buddhism  and  the  native  Bushido 
did  not  teach  the  sacredness  of  the  marriage  relation  or 
present  monogamy  as  its  ideal.  Christianity  has  created 
a new  respect  for  woman  and  opened  to  her,  modern 
avenues  of  activity.  Buddhist  charity  had  long  since 
degenerated  into  mere  ceremonies  and  Shinto  did  prac- 

67 


tically  nothing  in  that  direction,  but  Christianity  has 
been  the  fruitful  mother  of  many  philanthropic  enter- 
prises. Japan  has  officially  put  aside  its  former  system 
of  holidays  and  adopted  the  Christian  Sabbath  as  a 
day  of  rest  though  it  is  not  satisfactorily  kept  as  a day 
of  worship.  Finally  Christianity  has  been  a spur  to 
other  religions  arousing  them  to  great  spiritual  earnest-  * 
ness  and  to  some  degree  of  activity  in  educational  and 
charitable  work.” 

INTERNATIONAL  RELATIONS 

With  feverish  haste  Japan  strove  to  qualify  for  a full 
and  equal  place  among  the  great  nations  of  the  world. 
By  the  end  of  the  eighties  she  felt  that  she  had  sufficient- 
ly qualified,  to  secure  the  restoration  of  the  treaty  ports, 
to  complete  national  control  and  the  abrogation  of  the 
offensive  and  humiliating  provisions  regarding  extra 
territoriality  and  of  the  foreign  regulation  of  her  tariff. 

The  traders  and  governments  of  Europe  were  loath 
to  surrender  their  special  privileges  in  Japan  and  re- 
fused to  accede  to  Japan’s  claims.  That  led  to  violent 
anti-foreign  reactions  during  the  last  decade  of  the  cen- 
tury and  the  rising  conviction  that  the  West  is  primarily 
selfish,  that  its  spirit  is  aggressive,  and  that  Japan  must 
rely  on  her  own  military  and  naval  power  to  secure  jus- 
tice and  fair  dealing  at  the  hands  of  the  West.  This 
conviction  led  to  the  rapid  development  of  her  army 
and  navy.  It  was  made  more  definite  when  at  the  close 
of  a brief  war  with  China  (1894-5),  Germany,  Russia, 
and  France  intervened  with  an  ultimatum  to  restore 
Port  Arthur  to  China. 

Russian  acquisition  of  Port  Arthur,  shortly  after  , 
(1898),  and  her  policies  in  Manchuria  and  Korea,  led 
to  the  Russo-Japanese  War  (1904-5).  This  stopped  the 
partition  of  China  by  the  Western  nations.  That  parti- 
tion had  vigorously  started  up  (1897-8)  and  had  pre- 
cipitated the  Boxer  uprising  in  China  (1900). 

68 


The  refusal  of  Canada,  the  United  States,  Australia, 
and  New  Zealand  to  permit  Japanese  immigration  has 
served  to  irritate  still  further  the  national  feeling 
against  western  nations.  Each  of  these  countries  has 
passed  laws  regarded  by  Japan  as  invidious  and  hu- 
miliating, because,  as  they  insist,  the  legislation  implies 
Japanese  race  inferiority,  which  is  emphatically  re- 
sented. 

Japan’s  success  in  the  Russo-Japanese  War  was  made 
possible  by  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance  (1902).  It 
was  this  Alliance  that  inevitably  brought  Japan  into 
the  World-War  (September,  1914),  when  Great  Brit- 
ain called  upon  her  to  drive  Germany  out  of  Kiao-Chou, 
which  had  been  taken  by  Germany  in  1897. 

After  capturing  it  (November  1914),  Japan  insti- 
tuted negotiations  with  China  known  as  the  “twenty-one 
demands.”  These  produced  in  China  bitterest  enmity 
toward  Japan,  and  among  the  people  of  the  West  wide- 
spread suspicion  of  Japan’s  policies  and  diplomatic 
methods. 

Japan’s  relations  with  Korea  date  back  many  cen- 
turies. Collision  with  China  on  Korean  politics  led  to 
the  China-Japan  war  (1894-5),  and  the  declared  inde- 
pendence of  Korea  from  Chinese  allegiance.  Russian 
ambitions  for  the  enlargement  of  her  Siberian  empire  to 
include  all  of  Manchuria  and  Korea  led  to  the  Russo- 
Japanese  war  (1904-5).  Japan  then  assumed  the  pro- 
tectorate of  Korea,  pledging  autonomy.  The  utterly 
corrupt  Korean  Government,  however,  proved  itself 
unable  to  maintain  order  or  provide  justice.  It  in- 
trigued, moreover,  with  Russia.  In  the  turmoil,  a Kor- 
ean assassinated  Japan’s  principal  statesman — Prince 
Ito.  These  difficulties  resulted  in  Japan’s  annexation 
of  Korea  in  1910.  While  much  that  Japan  has  done 
in  Korea  has  been  admirable,  and  Korean  economic, 
industrial  and  agricultural  life  has  been  improved,  yet 

69 


in  many  respects  her  methods  have  been  harsh  and 
sometimes  cruel. 

Japan’s  efforts  by  militaristic  pressure  to  transform 
Koreans  into  loyal  Japanese,  together  with  the  world 
agitation  of  subject  peoples  to  secure  freedom  on  the 
principle  of  “self-determination,”  led  to  the  amazing 
Korean  "passive  resistance  uprising”  and  “Declaration 
of  Independence.  Japanese  efforts  at  repression  were 
accompanied  by  widespread  brutalities  on  the  part  of 
the  police  and  gendarmes. 

WOMAN’S  LIFE  IN  NEW  JAPAN 

With  the  increasing  acceptance  of  Occidental  ideals 
and  life  in  modern  Japan,  Japanese  women  of  the  mid- 
dle and  higher  classes  have  been  experiencing  progres- 
sive emancipation,  while  those  of  the  working  classes 
have  been  falling  into  the  destructive  maelstrom  of  in- 
dustrialism. 

The  universal  education  of  girls  in  primary  schools 
was  adopted  from  America  along  with  the  ideal  of  the 
universal  education  of  boys.  Until  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century,  however,  few  Japanese  believed  in 
the  higher  education  of  women.  Thanks  to  the  energy 
of  Mission  Girls’  Schools,  the  capacity  of  Japanese 
women  to  profit  by  their  higher  education  has  been 
proven.  All  Japan  now  is  pushing  forward  along  these 
lines.  A few  women  are  now  in  the  universities.  A 
number  of  remarkable  women  are  already  in  public 
life. 

But  the  world  sweep  of  Occidental  industrialism  has 
brought  a mighty  disaster  to  girls  and  women  of  the  in- 
dustrial classes.  Hundreds  of  thousands  have  been 
swept  into  the  cities  and  into  the  factories,  to  work  long 
hours  in  unhygienic  conditions  and  in  immoral  sur- 
roundings. Disease,  death  and  licentiousness  have 
played  havoc  among  them. 

A medical  authority  after  full  investigation  a few 

70 


years  ago  estimated  that  of  500,000  women  in  factories, 
300,000  were  under  twenty  years  of  age;  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  them  worked  from  thirteen  to  fourteen  hours 
daily.  Where  they  work  in  day  and  night  shifts — in  the 
factory  dormitories,  the  day-shift  girls  slip  into  the  beds 
just  vacated  by  the  night-shift  girls;  and  vice  versa. 

Those  beds  accordingly  are  never  aired  nor  sunnde; 
terrible  breeders  of  disease.  Some  200,000  women  are 
newly  recruited  yearly,  of  whom  120,000,  it  is  said, 
never  return  to  their  homes.  They  become  “birds  of 
passage,  maids  in  dubious  tea-houses  and  prostitutes.” 
In  a few  years  disease  and  death  claims  them  all. 


A NEW  ERA  IN  HUMAN  HISTORY 

The  adoption  by  Japan  and  China  of  the  mechanical, 
economic,  social,  and  political  elements  of  Occidental 
civilization  constitutes  the  beginning  of  a new  era  in 
human  history.  The  changes  rapidly  occurring  in  Asia 
demand  attention.  What  is  the  duty  of  America  at  this 
time  in  its  relations  to  Asia?  What  responsibilities 
have  we,  if  any,  and,  what  is  even  more  pertinent,  what 
may  we  do  to  put  and  keep  ourselves  right  with  the 
Orient? 

Both  China  and  Japan  are  facing  mighty  problems. 
The  early  solution  of  those  problems  concerns,  not 
themselves  alone,  but  all  the  world.  Our  fate  is  in  truth 
involved  in  theirs.  The  urgency  accordingly  of  their 
appeal  should  command  our  earnest  and  sympathetic 
attention  and  secure  our  action.  Our  own  national  wel- 
fare through  the  long  future,  no  less  than  our  national 
character,  are  intimately  involved  in  our  response  to 
that  appeal. 

China’s  appeal  for  justice  and  friendly  treatment 
was  made  decades  ago,  but  has  been  completely  ig- 
nored by  the  statesmen  and  Christians  of  America.  Ja- 
pan’s appeal  is  more  recent.  Will  America  heed  it  any 

better?  c , n r u 

Sydney  Lriilick. 


71 


JAPANESE  SNAPSHOTS  IN  1919 
In  order  to  have  any  intelligent  understanding  of  the 
present  situation  in  Japan  it  is  necessary  to  speak  some- 
what of  the  conditions  existing  in  that  country  at  this 
time  and  in  doing  so  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  only 
the  broadest  statements  can  be  made  regarding  the  rap- 
idly changing  conditions.  So  kaleidoscopic  are  these 
changes  that  the  most  well-informed  person  would  hesi- 
tate to  express  opinions  and  the  things  which  are  true 
today  may  be  quite  changed  tomorrow.  But  broadly 
speaking  there  are  certain  facts  which  help  one  to  an 
understanding  of  the  situation  in  Japan  and  our  rela- 
tion to  it. 

While  it  would  be  the  sheerest  presumption  to  at- 
tempt any  discussion  of  political  conditions  it  is  not  out 
of  place,  perhaps,  to  recall  some  facts  which  are  well 
known,  for  the  most  part,  but  which  have  a distinct 
bearing  upon  our  relation  to  work  for  women  in  Japan. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  growth  of  the  democratic 
spirit.  As  every  one  knows,  the  militaristic  rule  in 
Japan  is  imposed  by  a rather  small  group  of  older 
statesmen  who  are  clinging  most  tenaciously  to  the  old 
order  in  government  and  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  see 
the  trend  of  the  times.  But  this  militaristic  rule  does 
not  grow  out  of  the  will  of  the  people  as  a whole  and 
every  passing  day  swells  the  numbers  of  those  who  have 
tasted  of  the  wine  of  democracy  and  found  it  pleasant  to 
the  taste  and  exhilarating  to  the  spirit.  At  the  same 
time  one  must  remember  that,  taken  as  a mass,  the  peo- 
ple do  not  read,  as  our  people  read,  and  the  press  is 
quite  heavily  censored.  One  must  also  take  into  ac- 
count the  ages  old  training  in  respect  for  authority 
which  is  ingrained  in  the  average  Japanese.  Venera- 
tion for  the  emperor,  who  embodies  in  his  person  the 
ideals  of  government,  is  part  of  the  religion  of  a Japan- 
ese and  these  deeply  rooted  traits  of  character  change 
slowly. 


72 


This  whole  political  situation  is  inextricably  en- 
twined with  the  economic  conditions  and  these  have  a 
direct  bearing  upon  the  place  and  work  of  the  Young 
Women’s  Christian  Association.  The  rice  riots  which 
occurred  in  the  summer  of  1918  focused  the  attention 
of  the  reading  world  upon  the  food  situation  in  Japan 
and  those  who  have  a deep  interest  in  the  affairs  of 
women  saw  in  the  conditions  which  those  riots  dis- 
closed a grave  menace  to  the  women  of  Japan.  The 
same  thing  is  happening  there  which  happened  long 
ago  here  in  that  women  were  forced  out  of  the  home  by 
economic  pressure  and  obliged  to  find  their  places  in 
the  business  and  professional  world. 

But  the  situation  is  far  more  serious  in  Japan  than  it 
ever  was  here  because  of  the  utterly  different  condi- 
tions under  which  the  women  of  Japan  have  always 
lived.  Through  countless  years  she  has  been  man’s  ser- 
vant and  the  mother  of  his  children  and  those  two 
functions  summed  up  the  reasons  for  her  existence. 
Men  do  not  know  how  to  accept  any  other  status  for 
women  nor  do  women  know  how  wisely  to  assume  the 
new  position.  A wise  and  far-seeing  missionary  who 
has  spent  his  life  in  Japan  when  asked  what  group  of 
girls  in  his  opinion  most  needed  the  ministry  of  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  answerd  without  a moment’s  hesitation, 
“The  business  women.”  And  then  he  added,  “I  sup- 
pose you  are  surprised  that  I did  not  say  the  factory 
girls.  They  are  very  needy,  but  their  need  is  not  so 
great  as  is  that  of  the  business  women.” 

Girls  and  women  in  Japan  are  eagerly  and  voraci- 
ously reading  translations  of  French  and  Russian  novels 
and  such  authors  as  Ellen  Key  and  are  seeing  on  the 
moving  picture  screen  pictures  of  American  life  which 
are  too  indecent  to  be  shown  in  this  country  and  are 
forming  their  ideas  of  the  freedom  of  women  from 
these  sources.  The  harm  that  is  being  done  through 
these  is  too  great  to  be  estimated. 

73 


The  industrial  situation  in  Japan  beggars  descrip- 
tion. We  all  know  how  she  has  risen  like  a rocket  into 
the  commercial  sky  and  she  has  done  this  by  using  up 
the  lives  of  women  and  children  as  one  burns  up  a 
candle.  Incredibly  long  hours,  insupportable  condi- 
tions of  labor  and  pitifully  insufficient  pay  tell  their 
story  in  the  stunted  bodies  and  blank,  unintelligent  ( 
faces  of  thousands  and  thousands  of  Japanese  girls, 
many  of  them  looking  to  be  mere  babies  though  the 
law  requires  that  they  shall  be  twelve  years  old.  Then 
there  is  the  great  army  of  girls  in  the  government 
schools  and  the  girls  in  their  homes  who  have  no  need 
to  work  but  do  have  a great  need  for  guidance  and  help 
as  they  try  to  interpret  the  changing  conditions  about 
them.  One  of  our  secretaries  says  that  the  girls  come  to 
her  asking  her  to  help  them  find  an  abiding-place — 
they  use  a Japanese  word  that  means  just  that — some- 
thing that  will  be  the  same  yesterday,  today,  and  to- 
morrow. One  gets  the  feeling  of  a whole  people  grop- 
ing about  in  the  dark  trying  to  find  themselves  when  all 
the  familiar  landmarks  are  whirling  about  them. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  the  general  situation  in 
Japan  has  but  been  touched  upon  in  the  most  cursory 
manner,  but  perhaps  enough  has  been  said  to  give  some 
appreciation  of  the  great  need.  What  are  we  doing 
and  what  can  we  do  to  meet  this  need? 

At  the  present  time  we  have  Associations  in  Kobe, 
Osaka,  Tokyo,  and  Yokohama  while  pre-organization 
work  is  going  on  in  Kyoto.  Kobe  and  Yokohama  are  of 
course  emphasizing  emigration  work  and  are  giving  a 
very  real  and  valuable  service  to  girls  who  are  coming 
to  America.  Not  only  are  they  working  with  the  girls  / 
themselves  before  they  leave  Japan  but  they  have  estab- 
lished such  relations  with  cooperating  organizations 
here— both  Associations  and  churches — that  the  girls 
are  assured  of  welcome  and  sympathy  on  their  arrival. 
Their  preparation  includes  classes  in  English  and  in 

74 


demonstration  of  American  cookery,  housekeeping  and 
general  customs.  The  secretaries  also  undertake  with 
the  girls  the  pleasant  task  of  helping  them  to  outfit 
themselves  with  American  clothes  and  teach  them  how 
to  put  them  on  and  wear  them.  The  Association  is  a 
busy  place  just  before  a big  ship  sails  as  the  girls  sit  at 
their  low  tables  sewing  industriously  on  the  strange  gar- 
ments under  the  kindly  and  interested  guidance  of  the 
secretary.  While  the  emigration  work  is  the  special 
and  peculiar  feature  of  the  work  in  these  two  cities,  the 
regular  forms  of  Association  activity  are  not  neglected 
and  the  ordinary  educational  classes,  clubs  and  social 
gatherings  proceed  as  in  any  other  Association. 

Osaka  has  an  appalling  industrial  need  but  Miss 
Hard  has  very  wisely  taken  the  position  that  the  other 
girls  in  Osaka  also  need  the  Association  and  has  insisted 
that  a balance  be  kept  in  establishing  the  activities  of 
the  infant  Association.  So  girls  from  all  sorts  of  groups 
are  coming  to  the  building  and  finding  there  an  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  the  things  which  they  particularly  desire, 
finding  friendships  with  other  girls  whom  they  would 
not  meet  through  any  other  channel  and  finding  an  op- 
portunity to  serve  as  they  share  with  others  whatever 
gift  life  has  brought  to  them.  The  industrial  group  is 
so  enormous  and  its  need  so  great  that  Miss  Hard,  her- 
self a trained  and  experienced  industrial  secretary,  has 
shown  wisdom  in  declining  to  undertake  industrial 
work  until  the  Association  is  able  to  do  more  than  dab- 
ble at  it  and  by  its  ineffectiveness  create  in  the  minds  of 
factory  managers  a disappointment  which  will  close  to 
us  doors  which  are  now  swinging  wide  open.  But  we 
must  enter  them  soon  and  to  do  so  there  must  be  rein- 
forcements in  Osaka. 

Multiplied  thousands  of  girls  in  Osaka  are  finding  in 
the  gray  smoke  which  rises  day  and  night  into  the  gray 
sky  of  that  gray  city  a counterpart  for  their  own  lives — 
gray,  all  gray!  No  home  life — for  the  girls  live  in 

75 


dormitories  within  the  walls  of  the  factory  enclosure — 
no  fun,  no  play,  only  hard,  grinding,  relentless  toil 
through  long  weary  hours  seven  days  in  the  week  for 
the  merest  pittance  sufficient  only  to  keep  soul  and  body 
together.  One  can  understand  why  the  toll  of  suicide  is 
so  high  when  one  remembers  the  hopelessness  of  the  ^ 
future  for  a people  who  have  no  Christ.  A present 
without  a gleam  of  joy  or  brightness,  a future  without 
a ray  of  hope!  If  we  could  actually  make  real  to  our- 
selves the  condition  of  these  thousands  and  thousands 
of  girls  we  should  not  rest  until  we  could  be  sure  that 
we  had  done  everything  in  our  power  to  bring  to  them 
only  the  tiniest  bit  of  what  life  offers  to  us  with  every 
new  day  and  which  we  accept  as  a matter  of  course  it 
has  become  so  commonplace. 

Tokyo  has  a good  building  which  was  built  by  friends 
in  America  and  is  not  unlike  an  Association  here  in  the 
general  scope  of  its  work.  To  be  sure,  the  girls  who 
throng  its  rooms  are  in  appearance  very  unlike  those 
one  sees  here  at  home  but  after  all  girls  are  girls  the 
world  over  and  a group  of  high  schools  girls  in  Tokyo 
having  a party  or  giving  a play  are  just  as  full  of  sup- 
pressed giggles  as  such  a group  would  b eat  home  while 
the  older  girls,  demure  as  they  seem  with  their  soft 
voices  and  gentle  manners  enjoy  the  normal  life  of  a 
real  girl  quite  as  much  as  do  their  American  sisters. 

Any  discussion  of  work  for  women  in  Japan  even  the 
briefest,  must  pay  tribute  to  the  remarkable  potential 
leadership  of  the  Japanese  women.  When  one  con- 
siders the  position  which  women  have  occupied  for 
centuries  in  Japan  one  is  filled  with  amazement  at  see- 
ing the  initiative  and  power  of  achievement  which 
they  display  when  they  are  given  the  least  opportunity 
to  develop  it.  They  ask  only  that  we  help  them  in 
finding  the  paths  and  getting  them  started  in  the  way 
of  working  together  for  all  women  of  their  country, 
bringing  to  their  service  what  fifty  years  of  experience 

76 


has  taught  us  about  working  together.  They  will  carry 
the  burden  very  soon  and  in  a decade  or  two  they  will 
not  need  us  to  show  them  the  way.  The  pre-organiza- 
tion work  in  any  city,  which  is  now  in  process  in  Kyoto, 
means  sitting  down  in  that  city  and  finding  that  poten- 
tial leadership,  choosing  wisely  those  who  will  guide 
the  work  along  the  right  lines  and  getting  together 
groups  of  girls  who  will  constitute  the  Association 
when  it  shall  be  organized. 

America,  of  all  nations,  should  be  making  an  earnest 
and  intelligent  effort  to  understand  the  Japanese  people 
and  this  can  be  done  only  by  taking  toward  them  an 
attitude  which  shall  be  wholly  sympathetic  in  its  desire 
to  arrive  at  truth.  Japan  is  neither  a land  wholly  given 
over  to  artistic  expression  and  flowers  and  color  and 
light-hearted  laughter,  nor  is  it  a land  whose  people  are 
essentially  dishonest,  scheming,  untrustworthy  and  un- 
scrupulous as  some  would  have  us  believe — but  they 
are  just  folks,  like  ourselves,  with  human  sympathies 
and  desires  and  aspirations,  eager  to  learn  and  ranging 
over  the  wide  world  in  a search  for  all  that  appeals  to 
them  as  being  best  in  civilization  everywhere.  We  have 
called  them  imitators,  not  originators,  and  that  is  in  a 
large  measure  true.  But  whom  and  what  do  they  imi- 
tate? Practically  everything  which  we  so  severely  cri- 
ticise in  the  Japanese  finds  its  parallel  in  some  expres- 
sion of  national  life  in  our  own  or  some  other  western 
nation.  An  open  mind  on  the  part  of  our  people  and 
the  friendly  desire  to  help  which  a non-christian  nation 
might  reasonably  expect  from  those  nations  which  call 
themselves  Christian  would  go  far  toward  establishing 
that  peace  and  good  will  without  which  we  must  in- 
evitably crash  on  the  rocks  toward  which  we  are  drift- 
ing. 

Jane  Niel  Scott. 


11 


JAPAN 


Factory  Women 

IV orkers — 60%  of  factory  workers  are  women. 

1.3  are  in  their  “teens.” 

10  hour  day  and  up. 

Wages — 15c  to  20c  daily  pay. 

Housing — Dormitory  system — 2 shifts  of  workers  in  same  beds. 

Health — 80,000  taken  ill  and  leave  yearly. 

14,000  die  of  consumption. 

Rtligion — 777  shrines  and  temples  in  Osaka. 

4,322  priests. 

207  Church  and  Sunday  Schools. 

105  Missionaries  and  Christian  Workers. 


What  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Is  Doing 

27  Student  Associations — 3,500  members. 

5 Centers. 

14  U.  S.  A.  Secretaries. 


( 


78 


REFERENCE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ON  JAPAN 

The  Development  of  Japan  Latourette 

The  Macmillan  Co.,  1918. 

A summary  of  the  development  of  Japan — Its  people,  civilization 
problems  and  policies. 

Japan  in  World  Politics  Kawakami 

The  Macmillan  Co.,  1917. 

A book  written  by  a Japanese  to  remove  some  of  the  misunderstand- 
ings between  the  nations. 

Japanese  Girls  and  Women  Bacon 

Houghton,  Mifflin  & Co.,  1902. 

Through  this  account  of  Japanese  women  in  their  homes— the  social 
fabric  of  the  country  is  better  understood. 

Education  of  Women  in  Japan Burton 

Fleming  Revell  Co.,  1914. 

Showing  woman  as  she  was  in  old  Japan  and  as  she  is  today  under 
the  educative  influence  that  is  emancipating  her. 

The  Mastery  of  the  Far  East Arthur  Judson  Brown 

Scribner’s,  1919. 

The  story  of  Korea’s  transformation  and  Japan’s  rise  to  supremacy 
in  the  Orient.  The  place  and  influence  of  Christian  missions  as  a 
potent  force  for  a better  world  order  is  clearly  shown. 

Working  Women  of  Japan Gulick 

Missionary  Education  Movement,  1915. 

The  effect  that  Japan’s  industrial  conditions  are  having  upon 
the  womanhood  of  the  country  is  admirably  treated  in  this  little 
book. 

The  Far  East  Unveiled  Frederick  Coleman 

Cassel  & Co.,  Ltd.,  1918. 

A strikingly  interesting  and  impartial  account  of  political  and  indus- 
trial conditions  in  Japan  and  China  during  1916. 

Asia  at  the  Door  Kawakami 

Fleming  Revell,  1914. 

Written  by  a Japanese  to  protest  against  the  discrimination  shown  by 
the  U.  S.  Government  toward  Japanese  immigrants. 

Japan  Today Ruth  Emerson 

Woman’s  Press,  1916. 

A delightfully  instructive  and  entertaining  book  on  the  life  of  girls 
and  women  in  Japan  and  the  opportunities  for  service  that  the  Young 
Women’s  Christian  Association  has  among  them. 

Democratic  Movement  in  Asia Tyler  Dennett 

Association  Press,  1918. 


79 


An  analysis  of  the  forces  contributing  to  the  progress  of  democracy 
in  the  Orient. 

Ancient  Peoples  at  New  Tasks Willard  Price 

Missionary  Education  Movement,  1918. 

Chapter  2 contains  a resume  of  industrial  conditions  in  Japan. 

Tama — The  Diary  of  a Japanese  School  Girl. 


SOUTH  AMERICA— ITS  PROBLEMS 
By  John  Barrett,  IQIQ 

There  is  a growing  demand  in  South  America  for 
social  and  industrial  reforms,  as  evidenced  by  work- 
men’s compensation,  old  age  pension  and  similar  laws, 
anti-alcohol  crusades,  child  welfare  congresses,  etc.  In 
many  of  these  movements  women  are  taking  an  active 
part,  but  they  need  guidance  to  avoid  mistakes  and 
catch  the  spirit  of  “team  work.” 

South  American  women  are  capable  of  just  as  great 
advancement  as  any  when  the  keen  native  intelligence 
which  is  joined  to  their  admirable  qualities  of  devo- 
tion and  purity  in  the  home  is  given  proper  training 
and  opportunity.  Modern  industrial  conditions  have 
forced  many  of  them,  all  unprepared,  into  stores,  of- 
fices and  factories,  while  public  opinion  still  frowns  on 
a woman  doing  anything  outside  of  her  home,  and  many 
unscrupulous  men  still  think  of  any  unprotected  wom- 
an as  their  natural  prey. 

In  the  great  industrial  development  which  is  bound 
to  come,  women  can  help  largely  to  improve  conditions. 
Professional  women  are  increasing  in  number  and  in- 
fluence, and  are  powerful  agencies  in  solving  South 
America’s  social  and  industrial  problems.  The  wom- 
en students  must  be  won  for  a social,  not  an  individual- 
istic ideal  of  life.  What  unlimited  possibilities  there  are 
for  leadership  in  the  young  womanhood  of  South  Amer- 
ica ! The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  has  no  greater  opportunity  today 
than  the  sisterly,  unpatronizing  encouragement  and 
guidance  of  the  young  women  of  South  America. 

If  what  little  is  said  here  arouses  particular  interest 
in  Pan  American  relations,  the  Pan  American  Union, 
as  the  international  organization  of  American  repub- 
lics and  central  bureau  of  information  for  Pan  America, 
will  be  glad  to  answer  as  far  as  possible  any  questions 
asked  of  it. 


81 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO 
THE  YOUNG  WOMEN’S  CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION 

South  America  is  not  a country,  but  a continent,  in 
which  six  out  of  eleven  countries  are  confidently  expect- 
ing that  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  will  be  of  some  help  to  its  wom- 
en. It  is  a land  full  of  great  cities  and  vast  country 
places  which  because  of  their  isolation  from  the  devas- 
tation of  war  have  grown  remarkably. 

There  is  an  extraordinary  increase  in  the  commercial 
relationships  between  North  and  South  America,  and 
the  League  of  Nations  has  only  strengthened  the  Pan- 
American  bond,  which  is  going  to  bring  all  of  us  in  the 
Western  Hemispheres  closer  together.  Already  there 
are  beginnings  of  a progressive  women’s  movement  in 
that  land.  The  time  was  when  the  South  American 
women  lived  exclusively  within  four  walls  of  her  home, 
and  did  not  even  do  her  own  shopping  or  ever  walk  on 
the  streets.  Now  many  changes  have  come  rapidly  to 
her.  In  Brazil  there  are  at  least  five  great  cities  in 
which  there  ought  to  be  soon  some  kind  of  work  done 
for  women.  We  are  already  planning  to  enter  Rio 
Janeiro,  with  its  million  or  more  inhabitants,  and  San 
Paulo,  with  its  600,000  inhabitants.  Women  are  begin- 
ning to  enter  the  business  world.  In  both  these  cities 
there  are  several  hundreds  of  women  now  employed  in 
telephone  centrals.  Even  the  banks  have  anywhere  from 
six  to  twenty  women  clerks,  and  the  number  of  women 
entering  the  higher  educational  institutions  is  steadily 
on  the  increase. 

Industrially  women’s  work  is  just  beginning.  Their 
entrance  has  been  so  recent  that  at  the  present  neither 
wages  nor  hours  of  work  nor  factory  conditions  have 
been  adjusted  to  meet  their  needs.  In  Rio  Janeiro  there 
is  no  place  where  she  may  have  an  opportunity  to  meet 
other  women  through  the  fellowship  of  a social  club. 


The  Association  has  the  unique  chance  to  start  the  first 
center  for  women  in  the  city. 

In  San  Paulo  we  are  facing  a work  for  students,  as 
many  of  them  come  from  the  provinces  round  about  to 
study  in  the  normal  schools.  Our  work  for  them  should 
include  a hostel,  because  there  is  literally  no  place 
where  a woman  may  live  in  either  of  these  cities  out- 
side of  her  own  family,  unless  she  is  a younger  girl 
studying  in  a convent.  There  are  women  of  the  finest 
moral  leadership  who  are  ready  to  stand  back  of  her 
work  in  both  of  these  cities.  Some  of  them  single  hand- 
ed and  alone  have  tried  to  work  for  the  women  of  their 
city,  but  have  needed  some  force  to  draw  them  together 
and  unite  them  for  a common  purpose. 

In  Montevideo,  the  heart  of  that  most  progressive 
country,  Uruguay,  there  is  also  the  greatest  need  for  a 
city  Association.  There  is  adequate  backing  for  it 
among  the  fine  women  who  are  residents  there,  and 
business  women  and  women  in  society  alike  are  impat- 
iently waiting  for  us  to  show  them  the  way.  They  have 
never  had  a chance  to  see  what  a Y.  W.  C.  A.  can  be 
like,  but  all  they  know  is  that  they  want  something  for 
their  women  and  girls  that  shall  be  like  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
which  has  a flourishing  Association  there.  The  heads 
of  business  firms  are  hindered  from  employing  as  many 
women  as  they  would  like,  because  there  is  not  in  the 
entire  city  a club  or  residence  for  girls  who  may  be  liv- 
ing away  from  home.  In  this  city  there  is  endless  op- 
portunity for  educational  and  vocational  work  for  girls 
which  shall  prepare  them  for  self-support.  There  is 
also  a great  need  here,  as  in  Brazil,  for  some  place 
where  the  social  life  of  the  women  and  girls  can  be  de- 
veloped, for  at  persent  outside  of  their  families  and  a 
few  exclusive  groups  there  is  not  a possibility  for  what 
we  would  call  a general  social  life  in  the  city  of  Monte- 
video. 


83 


As  we  cross  the  river  to  the  Argentine,  we  enter  the 
great  city  of  Buenos  Aires,  with  its  million  and  a half 
of  inhabitants,  and  the  meeting  place,  literally,  for  all 
nations  on  earth.  Here  our  one  Association  has  strug- 
gled for  twelve  years  to  maintain  itself  with  no  sort  of 
quarters  which  were  adequate  to  the  situation.  The 
new  building  which  will  soon  be  under  way  and  in 
which  the  people  of  the  city  are  heartily  cooperating 
will  open  many  new  avenues  of  service  and  demand  a 
work  adequate  to  the  needs  of  this  great  metropolis. 

Buenos  Aires  is  also  the  center  of  great  industrial  and 
student  classes.  Scarcely  any  country  in  the  world  is  as 
progressive  in  its  student  spirit  as  is  Argentine.  They 
have  control,  even  in  the  administration  of  the  univer- 
sity and  there  are  many  hundreds  of  women  now  press- 
ing into  higher  education,  which  only  a few  years  ago 
was  almost  unknown  throughout  the  city. 

It  is  literally  possible  to  influence  almost  every  coun- 
try of  the  world  via  Buenos  Aires.  The  connection  be- 
tween this  city  as  well  as  all  South  American  cities,  is 
very  close,  and  if  we  enter  the  open  doors  of  South  Am- 
erica we  are  surely  helping  in  a great  advance  in  Eu- 
rope. 

As  one  crosses  the  mountains  of  Chile,  one  comes  into 
a country  of  extraordinary  beauty,  with  its  snow- 
capped mountains  and  its  progressive  people.  There 
are  probably  more  women  in  Chile  in  institutions  for 
higher  education  in  proportion  to  the  population  than 
in  any  other  country,  and  student  life  is  powerfully  or- 
ganized. 

At  Santiago  the  capitol  and  seat  of  culture,  we  have 
been  besieged  by  the  educational,  political  and  social 
leaders  of  the  city  to  do  something  toward  the  establish- 
ment of  an  Association  for  women.  Already  in  the  city 
there  is  a most  interesting  women’s  club,  the  first  of  its 
kind  in  South  America,  and  carrying  on  a most  worth- 
while service.  Even  the  leaders  of  this  club  unitedly 


urge  that  some  organization  like  our  own  should  enter 
in  quickly  to  help  direct  the  thinking  of  the  women  who 
are  just  reaching  out  for  something  more  in  their  lives. 

In  Valparaiso,  the  great  seaport  on  the  western  coast, 
a large  group  of  business  women  besieged  the  Y.M.C.A. 
and  insisted  on  being  organized  into  a club  because 
of  the  dire  need  for  better  living  conditions  and  for 
some  sort  of  educational  and  social  interest  in  that  great 
city.  We  could  organize  a city  Association  there  to- 
morrow which  would  have  the  patronage  of  all  the  best 
elements  in  the  life  of  the  city.  Almost  every  business 
house  has  woven  in  its  employ,  not  only  Chileans,  but 
also  women  of  foreign  birth,  and  the  need  is  very  great. 

The  same  conditions  are  beginning  to  show  them- 
selves in  Bolivia  and  Peru,  though  the  immediate  neces- 
sity for  work  there  is  not  so  pressing  as  in  these  other 
cities. 

There  is  likewise  a supreme  chance  given  the  Asso- 
ciation to  minister  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  South  Am- 
erica. The  great  proportion  of  thinking  people  who 
are  in  business,  in  professional  life,  in  student  life,  and 
in  literary  life,  practically  call  themselves  agnostics. 
On  closely  questioning,  we  find  that  they  are  agnostic  so 
far  as  ecclesiastical  systems  go,  but  are  not  so  far  as  the 
needs  of  their  inner  life  are  concerned.  It  is  possible  to 
do  a great  work  in  the  religious  life  of  countless  women 
in  this  continent  if  we  have  secretaries  who  can  give 
themselves  to  this  service.  There  are  many  thousands 
of  women  whose  lives  have  not  been  influenced  either 
by  Catholicism  or  Protestantism,  who  are  sheep  with- 
out a shepherd,  and  for  whom  the  great  appeal  is  the 
social  passion  for  bringing  the  Kingdom  of  God 
through  a sense  of  brotherhood  and  a moral  responsi- 
bility for  bringing  into  life  of  humanity  new  hope  and 
courage. 

South  America  must  have  the  opportunity  not  only 
to  have  Christian  Associations  there,  but  the  Associa- 

85 


tions  in  North  America  must  do  more  than  has  yet  been 
done  to  bring  the  ideals  of  America  into  the  lives  of 
thousands  who  come  here  as  students.  We  cannot  es- 
cape the  influence  of  South  America  upon  our  North 
American  life.  It  will  increase  as  the  days  go  by,  and 
we  owe  it  to  them  not  only  for  our  own  sakes  but  for 
their  sakes  to  give  the  best  in  our  North  American  life  (| 
to  them,  that  the  idealism  of  a Christian  democracy  may 
be  perpetuated  in  the  Western  Hemisphere. 

Bertha  Gonde,  September,  IQIQ. 


( 


86 


Extracts  from  Mrs.  Ida  Clyde  Clark's  Report  on  Her 
South  American  Survey.  July,  IQIQ 

In  South  America  there  are  possibly  20,000,000  wom- 
en, and  with  regard  to  our  responsibility  toward  them 
they  may  be  divided,  roughly,  into  three  classes,  the 
home  women,  the  working  women,  and  the  women  stu- 
dents. 

THE  HOME  WOMEN 

First,  there  are  the  millions  of  home  women,  rich  and 
poor,  who  are  suffering  under  the  fearful  handicap, 
whether  they  are  conscious  of  it  or  not,  of  a standard  of 
morals  that  is  shockingly  low,  a system  of  education  that 
closes  the  door  of  opportunity  to  them  at  a time  when 
they  should  be  most  ready  to  enter  it,  and  a code  of  laws 
that  offers  no  sort  of  protection  either  regarding  own- 
ership of  property,  control  of  children,  or  any  of  those 
things  that  are  vital  to  the  welfare  and  happiness  of 
women. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  speaking  of  South 
America  we  are  speaking  of  a dozen  separate  republics, 
each  with  its  separate  laws  and  customs,  and  in  some  of 

these  countries  fairly  good  and  equitable  laws  exist. 

* * * * * 

I found  in  every  country  evidences  of  an  awakening, 
and  while  there  is  neither  co-ordination  nor  organi- 
zation, I found  here  and  there  groups  of  women  who 
are  beginning  to  see  the  light,  and  who,  in  one  way 
or  another,  are  trying  to  express  themselves.  The 
world  is  much  more  of  a neighborhood  now  than  it 
has  ever  been  before.  News  of  the  activities  of  women 
in  countries  heretofore  remote,  is  sifting  into  South 
America  and  the  germs  of  progress  and  of  advancement 
are  taking  root.  In  one  place  we  find  it  flourishing 
among  the  high-class  women  and  in  another  place 
among  the  middle  classes,  while  in  Peru  women  of  the 
lower  classes  are  joining  with  the  men  in  protesting 

87 


against  intolerable  conditions.  But  fundamentally  the 
leaders  are  actuated  by  the  same  impulse. 

I have  a strong  conviction  that  it  is  a duty  laid 
heavily  upon  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Associa- 
tion to  bring  to  the  situation  its  program  of  socialized 
religion  and  to  make  articulate  the  ideals  toward  which 
the  thinking  women  of  South  America  are,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  striving.  One  by  one  the  pieces 
are  being  fitted  into  a structure  whose  torrets  will 
never  rise  to  their  proper  height  unless  they  rest  on  a 
foundation  that  is  purely  and  unmistakably  Christian. 
The  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association  is  the  only 
woman’s  organization  in  the  world  that  is  fitted  to  give 
to  the  woman  movement  in  South  America  the  impetus 
that  will  sweep  it  surely  and  permanently  out  to  the 
open  sea  of  woman’s  greater  opportunity  and  woman’s 
broader  usefulness.  If  it  fails,  in  the  degree  or  in  the 
quality  of  its  effort  at  this  critical  moment,  it  will  not 
only  be  neglecting  a privilege,  it  will  be  shirking  a re- 
sponsibility. 

ifc  # 

One  incident  showing  that  there  are  signs  of  restless- 
ness among  the  best  women  of  Latin  America:  I met 
at  the  home  of  a leading  woman  a number  of  charming, 
cultured  women.  They  were  greatly  interested  in  hav- 
ing me  speak  to  them  of  what  women  of  North  Amer- 
ica were  doing,  and  I was  able  to  tell  them  of  the  work 
of  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association  and  of 
how  the  Government,  in  the  necessity  that  rose  out  of 
the  war,  made  that  organization  one  of  the  six  organ- 
izations comprising  the  Commission  on  Training  Camp 
Activities.  Later  this  lady  of  Chile  was  showing  me 
through  a beautiful  palace  and  at  last  we  came  to 
the  handsome  chapel  where  the  family  worshipped. 
Many  candles  were  burning  on  the  exquisite  altar 
and  paintings  of  great  value  adorned  the  walls. 
I remarked  on  the  impressive  beauty  of  the  room 


and  she  said,  with  a pathetic  note  in  her  voice,  “Ah, 
Senora,  but  I have  realized  for  some  time  that  it 
doesn’t  mean  anything!  Think  how  much  more  worth 
while  are  the  things  about  which  you  have  been  telling 
us.” 

WOMEN  WHO  WORK 

The  second  class  of  women  whom  we  must  consider 
in  dealing  with  South  America  are  the  women  who 
work,  and  they  are  far  more  numerous  than  we  realize. 
In  Rio  de  Janeiro  alone  there  are  said  to  be  25,000  for 
whom  nothing  is  being  done.  There  is  no  profession  or 
calling  into  which  South  American  women  have  not 
entered  in  large  numbers,  and  these  numbers  are  in- 
creasing rapidly.  There  is  scarcely  a place  in  all  South 
America  where  a business  or  professional  woman  can 
go  alone  and  get  a noon-day  luncheon,  although  every 
few  doors  places  are  provided  where  men  go  and  drink 
coffee  at  all  hours  of  the  day. 

The  situation  concerning  trained  nurses  in  South 
America  is  appalling.  It  is  bad  enough  that  there 
should  be  no  private  nurses,  but  even  in  the  large  ma- 
jority of  the  hospitals,  the  nursing  is  done  by  Sisters 
of  Charity  who  have  had  no  professional  training.  But 
we  cannot  conscientiously  encourage  women  to  take  up 
the  nursing  profession  in  a country  where  there  are  no 
decent  places  for  them  to  live  and  where  they  are  sur- 
rounded by  every  form  of  danger. 

The  cities  of  South  America  are  over-supplied  with 
school  teachers,  and  there  are  not  enough  to  supply  the 
country  districts.  This  is  largely  because  there  is  no 
way  in  which  a woman  alone  can  live  in  that  country. 

Of  the  need  for  the  work  of  the  Association  for  the 
large  and  growing  class  of  working  and  business  women 
I feel  that  it  is  wholly  unnecessary  for  me  to  speak 
further.  The  scope  for  the  work  in  this  field  is  un- 
limited. 


89 


THE  WOMEN  STUDENTS 

I presume  it  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  dwell  on 
the  very  ripe  field  for  Association  work  among  the  stu- 
dent class  of  South  America.  It  is  here  that  probably 
the  greatest  possibility  for  successful  work  of  the  imme- 
diate future  lies. 

It  is  undoubtedly  from  this  class  that  the  leaders  of 
the  future  must  come  and  the  importance  of  the  field 
cannot  be  over-stated.  It  has  been  said  that  from 
ninety  to  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  students  in  the  uni- 
versities are  in  a state  of  unbelief  and  I have  no  doubt 
but  that  is  true.  When  we  consider  this  fact,  and  when 
we  realize  that  the  women  who  are  now  studying  in  the 
universities  of  the  country  are  destined  to  be  leaders 
among  the  women  of  tomorrow  we  know  that  we  can- 
not neglect  work  among  women  students  in  South 
America  and  be  true  to  our  great  responsibility  of  the 
future. 

* * # # * 

A.  Hyatt  V errill  in  “ Getting  Together  with 
Latin  America.” 

“In  fact,  a large  part  of  what  we  think  we  know 
about  South  America  is  utter  nonsence  and  the  first 
thing  we  must  do  is  to  unlearn  nearly  all  our  accepted 
ideas  of  South  America  and  its  inhabitants.  So  let  us 
cast  aside  all  prejudice,  all  traditional  foolishness  and, 
with  an  open  mind,  consider  the  facts  as  they  are  and 
not  as  we  would  wish  them  and  try  to  see  wherein  we 
have  so  signally  failed  to  establish  the  mutual  confi- 
dence and  friendship,  the  brotherly  relations  and  the 
lucrative  commerce  and  business  which  should  exist  be- 
tween the  northern  and  the  southern  continents  and 
then,  having  analyzed  this  side  of  the  question,  we  may 
better  understand  what  we  may  do  in  the  future.” 


SOUTH  AMERICA 


Three  republics  in  South  America  (Brazil,  Argentina,  Venezuela) 
are  larger  than  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  cities  of  the  Americas  are,  in  order  of  their  size,  New  York, 
Chicago,  Buenos  Aires,  Philadelphia,  Rio  de  Janiero. 

The  one  Y.  W.  C.  A.  boarding  home  in  South  America  accommo- 
dated in  one  year  a succession  of  617  women  of  16  different  nation- 
alities. 

Rio  de  Janeiro  has  over  15,000  women  workers. 


The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  South  America. 

9 Secretaries. 

2 Secretaries  in  Brazil  with  a field  larger  than  the  whole  U.  S.  A. 
Centers — Buenos  Aires,  Montivideo,  Rio  de  Janiero. 


91 


REFERENCE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ON 
SOUTH  AMERICA 

South  America — Observations  and  Impressions Bryce 

Macmillan  Company,  1914. 

A book  dealing  with  the  scenic,  social  and  economic  phenomena  of 
South  America.  A valuable  reference  book. 

The  Future  of  South  America Babson 

Little,  Brown  & Company,  1915. 

An  interesting  volume  on  the  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of 
South  America. 

A History  of  Latin  America  Sweet 

The  Abingdon  Press,  New  York,  1919. 

A concise  text  of  Latin  American  History. 

South  of  Panama Edward  Alsworth  Ross 

The  Century  Company,  1914. 

An  interesting  interpretation  of  the  difference  in  ideas  and  ideals  be- 
tween North  and  South  America. 

Understanding  South  America  Cooper 

The  Doran  Co.,  1918. 

A book  devoted  to  promoting  a more  sympathetic  and  intelligent 
conception  of  South  American  characteristics  and  ideals. 

South  American  Problems  Robert  Speer 

The  South  Americans  Hale 

Bobbs-Merrill  Co.,  1907. 

History  of  the  South  American  republic — their  history  and  progress — 
with  special  reference  to  their  commercial  relations  with  the  United 
States. 

Latin  America  Brown 

Fleming  Revell  Co. 

This  book  makes  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  South  Americans  very 
real.  Their  struggle  for  political  and  religious  liberty  is  vividly  told. 

Getting  Together  with  Latin  America Verrill 

Dutton  Co.,  1918. 

A book  written  to  further  our  trade  relations  with  South  America 
through  a dissemination  of  information  about  South  American 

peoples. 

South  America  Neely 

A Mission  Field — Its  Missionary  problems. 

Young  People’s  Movement  of  U.  S.  and  Canada,  1909. 

The  author  reveals  the  religious  conditions  of  South  America  and 
urges  greater  zeal  in  promoting  Protestant  missions. 

92 


Willard  Price 


Ancient  Peoples  at  New  Tasks 
Missionary  Education  Movement. 

Chapter  I deals  with  the  industrial  conditions  in  South  America  and 
contains  a plea  that  we  shall  not  permit  South  America  to  repeat  the 
industrial  mistakes  of  the  United  States. 


93 


